Equity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism

Equity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism: The UD Career Center’s Path Forward
 

The systemic racism, oppression, racial violence and injustices experienced by the Black community in our country must end. The UD Career Center (UDCC) believes Black Lives Matter and stands with and supports our Black students, alumni, staff, faculty and community as a whole.

The UDCC is a member of the Division of Student Life where a central part of our mission is to advance equity and inclusion. Career services is a social justice issue and we must assess, learn and evolve individually and as an office to create change. We are committed to building sustainable equity for Black and marginalized communities in society and specifically in the hiring process and workplace. We have been processing our path forward and over the summer are prioritizing our work to better understand needs and set our plan and structure for continuous, systemized action, including:

• Increasing funding for and partnerships with diversity-based RSOs, the CBC and other campus units to expand career-related initiatives that provide education, access to career opportunities and mentorship.
  
• Identifying and partnering with employers that are committed to equity in the hiring process and workplace.
• Investing in anti-racism training, education and reflection for UDCC staff to better address racism, racial inequities, implicit bias and microaggressions.
• Collaborating with the National Association of Colleges & Employers, SHRM, Handshake and Delaware business and industry associations to work on issues of equity and inclusion.
• Amplifying the voices and experiences of Black students, alumni and professionals in the workplace through campus programming, blogs and social media.
• Working with local Black-owned businesses for catering, events and services.
• Continuing to strengthen our efforts to recruit, hire and retain professional and student staff members of color.
• Building a metric-driven assessment process to track and report the progress of our actions, engagement and outcomes in this area.

We are accountable to the UD community for this to be a long-term and central focus of our work.