USM Diversity Plan: 2003

Department of Technology

The Department of Technology (DOT) has unanimously agreed to make a part of our culture and operating principles a comprehensive and systematic approach to meeting the needs of our students, staff, and faculty as is described below.

GOAL I: Climate

The DOT, as an academic unit within the School of ASET, participates in school-level diversity training on a yearly basis.

The DOT has designed and adopted a comprehensive plan for, and approach to, diversity. The plan encompasses seven distinctly different elements that impact virtually all of our students, staff, and faculty. The DOT diversity plan is available, and on file, in the DOT administrative office.

The DOT articulates the orientation toward appreciation for diversity and existence of their diversity plan in external publications.

The DOT creates a welcoming environment for all constituents primarily in two areas as follows:

Accessible facilities to persons with physical disabilities. Recent facility enhancements to DOT laboratories and classrooms provide for unrestricted access to persons with physical disabilities in all but one laboratory. A building renovation planned for 2003 will remove the last barrier to accessibility for persons with physical disabilities, and
"Safe Zones" have been established in the DOT administrative office, common student-use areas, and in various faculty office.

The DOT articulates its accomplishments with respect to fostering a diversity-sensitive environment and department personnel discuss these accomplishments in a very structured forum at least once per year. These accomplishments are then documented and shared with the Dean of ASET

GOAL II: Academic Experience

As part of our comprehensive diversity plan, the DOT has instituted the requirement of "diversity-sensitive" coursework for all students in all DOT programs. Diversity-sensitive coursework will be selected from a clearly defined list of courses as are identified and approved by the DOT faculty. Completion of the "diversity" requirement will be clearly documented on all DOT degree work sheets in the same manner, as are the current requirement for writing, math, and writing-intensive proficiencies.

Opportunities are provided at least twice per year for DOT faculty and staff to discuss issues of underrepresentation of selected groups in our students. Much of these discussions focus on the need, strategies, and approaches for expanding the matriculation of underrepresented student groups.

GOAL III: Student Recruitment and Retention

ASET has established an Office of Student Services, staffed by a DOT graduate, to create an emphasis on, and contact point for, student needs in terms of student recruitment and retention.

ASET has established easily accessible facilities for study, academic support, counseling, advising, and breaks.

The DOT, in cooperation with the ASET Office of Student Services, actively recruits, from the local and regional community, students from underrepresented groups. Such recruitment takes the form of numerous contacts and visits from ASET and DOT personnel to local/regional schools as well as hosting several half-day and day-long visits by students to the DOT on the Gorham campus.

GOAL IV: Faculty and Staff Recruitment and Retention

The DOT has endorsed, as port of our comprehensive diversity plan, and sensitivity to, and appreciation for, recruitment of faculty, staff, and student from underrepresented groups. In fact, our most recent hire of a tenure-track faculty member is from an underrepresented group. This sensitivity and appreciation will continue in the future as we replace faculty and staff as a result of retirement.

Dialogues about hiring underrepresented faculty and staff are completed as a normal part of the search and hiring process wherein search committee members operating within UMS guidelines and appropriate Human Resource functions address diversity as part of the hiring protocol. Additionally, search committees are required, as part of normal operating policy within the DOT, to bring forward a list of candidates being considered for employment wherein a discussion ensues with the faculty and staff as a whole regarding the diversity of applicants.

The DOT's hiring practices are specific in regard to establishment of a welcome environment for all applicants. This means all applicants, regardless of their status as a member of an underrepresented or protected class, are treated professionally, respectfully, and that the interview process, and language used as part of the interview process, conveys that welcoming environment.

The Dot supports faculty and staff members from underrepresented groups, as it does with faculty or staff members from any group, by creating a peer advisory committee. It is the charge and responsibility of this committee to advocate for, mentor, and support the faculty or staff member in their charge.