News & Updates

It was June 2020 that the Access College Foundation joined many organizations in standing in solidarity against racism and social injustice. We are continuing that pledge and want to let you know some of the things that we are doing to move forward in our promises.

One of the more important and significant things that we have done is to create an active, thriving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force of staff members in 2020-21. In 2021-22, we made the decision that all of our current task force members and any new members joining us in the future would complete a certification program on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace. The goal of this requirement is to help us become more inclusive by gaining the knowledge and tools to perform self-assessments and create plans for inclusive change. We have already changed our organizational thinking to adapt to the fact that nearly every decision we make has a diversity, equity or inclusion perspective and should go through the lens of the DEI Task Force.

Continuing goals include building an environment of cultural competence for staff and students, ensuring that our team is reflective of our community, and increasing the diversity of our Board of Directors to ensure that it is also reflective of the community we serve. By doing these things, we are compelled to build on our commitment to all members of our community.

A new area for 2022-23 is to develop useful DEI metrics by which to gauge our organization. The DEI Task Force will be working on identifying the appropriate metrics for review this year such as demographics across departments, retention across employee groups, employee turnover, demographics of employee candidates, employee advancement and promotion rate across employee groups, equal pay and pay equity, and employee new promoter scores. We are also creating a new opportunity for two of our staff to be peer liaisons to aid in fostering candid conversations about any topics that need to be addressed.

In the process of fulfilling our mission, the Access College Foundation will listen, learn, and lock arms with our staff, board, and community to stand against injustice of all types and to improve the futures of our students and this community for generations to come. It’s not a trend – it’s our standard!