Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Initiatives

All academic departments will continue to revise their curricula to ensure that coursework and department policies and actions reflect the school’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. In tandem with the Center for DEI, the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching will measure progress toward this goal with an audit of each discipline’s content and diversity of voices in the spring of 2022. 

A committee of faculty and administrators will review graduation requirements and propose the changes necessary to ensure that all students graduate with an appropriate level of cultural competency and critical understanding of social justice. The faculty will vote on any changes to graduation requirements during the 2022–23 school year with the hope that any new requirements may be implemented for the 2023–24 school year. 

Loomis Chaffee hired Derrick Gay to conduct a school-wide inclusivity climate survey during the 2020-21 school year. In October 2021, Dr. Gay shared his analysis of the survey results and offered recommendations to the Board of Trustees. He is scheduled to do the same with staff, faculty, and students in the winter term of 2021-22. The chief diversity officer will propose a process for this assessment that will involve Dr. Gay’s expertise. 

Student orientation and prefect and resident assistant training will include more training around DEI issues. The curriculum for the first year and sophomore year seminars will focus more directly on these issues. The school will further review our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training for faculty and students in the dormitories and review how students are encouraged to pursue and are chosen for leadership positions at the school.

The Black Alumni Mentoring Program, run by Stacy-Ann Rowe ’97, launched in fall 2020. The program currently connects 24 volunteer alumni mentors with 24 Loomis Chaffee students. Mentors and mentees officially meet three times in the year (once per term), but many pairs meet more often. The students in the program also meet monthly with the program director.   

The Office of Admission will review the school’s admission process and address barriers to application and access to a Loomis Chaffee education. This work includes consideration of implementing a test-optional policy in the application process.

 

The school will continue to commit the resources needed to offer a robust financial aid program, one that allows us to enroll students from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and to provide those students with a complete student experience. Financial aid will remain a top fundraising priority for the school.

All faculty and advisors were required to read Anthony Jack’s The Privileged Poor in the summer of 2021. During orientation, members of the community debriefed in groups to discuss key themes and takeaways to support our diverse students academically and socially. 

In an effort to address DEI issues that are specific to the curriculum and to the academic experience, the school added two assistant directors of diversity, equity, and inclusion curriculum development to the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching in 2020 to work with departments on issues of curricular inclusion and diversity. They also work directly with individual faculty members and with the faculty as a whole to ensure that our classrooms are both safe and brave, equitable, and challenging.

The school has conducted SEED training for administrative and teaching faculty. SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) participants “explore their own education in relation to race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual identity, abilities, and age, and how these factors currently impact their school, classrooms, community, or workplace. They consider how they can use their classrooms, communities, or workplaces to create a more equitable environment for all.” The school is currently developing a plan to have all faculty participate in SEED training.
 

The school will improve the process for the recruitment and retention of administrators, faculty, and staff of color. The Dean of Faculty Office and Human Resources will develop new recruitment and hiring strategies as well as DEI training programs for new faculty and staff and will establish a set of metrics to measure progress toward these goals.

The school is developing a protocol for students and employees to report incidents of racism and/or bias. This protocol will be shared with all community members and will include ways for the school to evaluate and respond to all incidents reported. The protocol will be put in place in the 2021–22 school year. Data collected through this protocol will help us monitor the school and workplace climates.

The school has developed and implemented a protocol to ensure that with all of our construction projects, we seek and receive bids from minority contractors and that we award contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses.
 

In the summer of 2020, the Board of Trustees established a new committee on diversity, equity, and inclusion at the school to be chaired by Trustee Erik Cliette ’84. The committee continues to monitor the progress in meeting the school’s DEI goals as well as review reports regarding the handling of any issues regarding racism.