While many institutions of higher learning discuss the importance of diversity and encourage efforts at inclusion and equity, Kenyon College faculty have taken the unusual next step of writing the concepts into their tenure and promotion guidelines.
The revisions, adopted in an overwhelmingly favorable faculty vote in October, are tantamount to a change in employment terms and take on added significance because they will allow teachers engaged in diversity initiatives to see their efforts benefit them as employees in a way they did not before.
“All we did was put down in writing what all of us wanted to do, anyway. So at the end of the day, it wasn’t controversial. It was really a wonderful thing to experience,” says Dr. Tom Giblin, who helped draft the guideline changes and is an associate professor of physics and chair of the department.
“You don’t get the opportunity to rethink these things a lot. What are our values now and where do we want our classrooms and scholarship to be?”
The changes to evaluation criteria, the first amendments since March 1999, take effect July 1, 2019. Among the explicit ways diversity has been interwoven in the three-page document:
• Affirms teaching excellence as “the sine qua non” for retention and advancement, plus achievement in collegiate citizenship and scholarly or artistic engagement as strong complements: “Woven into each of these criteria is a commitment to fostering an open, respectful, supportive, accessible, and inclusive community of learners.”
• In teaching excellence, cites among seven essential areas “promotion of an inclusive classroom environment that values diversity, takes into consideration students from a broad variety of backgrounds and learning styles, and challenges students to their best efforts.”
