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MCC Daily Tribune

Action Steps in Response to Last Week's Incidence of Hate Speech

Over the past week, the MCC community has come together to discuss the impact of the racist tweet by one of our students. In open forums, conversation, dialogue, and emails, I have heard the pain caused by this incident of hate speech. Words matter, and these vile words have hurt so many members of our community terribly. Yet, our community is a powerful one, and the honesty and bravery of our students, faculty, and staff at this moment will make a difference for all of us going forward.

You have called on MCC to be better: to live our values of inclusiveness, integrity, and excellence in our practice, curriculum, and policies; to assure our students see themselves represented in our classrooms and offices; and to create a community in which the full diversity of our students can be successful and the full diversity of our employees can succeed.

We have a shared responsibility for MCC's culture and for our community's success. You have stood up for our values, and MCC will stand up for you.

Today, I am sharing the actions our College will take in the days, weeks, and months ahead. For each action, I have provided the name or names of an individual or individuals. If you wish to join in leading MCC's work on any of the action items, please reach out to one of the people listed. If you feel that this list does not include an action step that you believe is important, share that step here.

In addition to the steps listed, the Provost and Vice Presidents will adopt my current practice of having periodic drop-in office hours. Look for information on dates and times to be posted in the Daily Tribune.

On noon on Monday, October 9 at the Downtown Campus and noon on Friday, October 13 at the Brighton Campus, I will walk through the action plan outlined below to provide more detail. Please consider attending. Also, look for another set of forums before the end of this semester to update you on progress made.

I know this week has been hard, and I am sorry. In the end, MCC will be a stronger college and community because of this crisis and because of our response. I am grateful for your leadership.

Thank you,

Anne

_________________

To assure our College welcomes and supports the full diversity of our community, MCC will take the following actions:

Preventing, Identifying, and Responding to Bias

  • Create a website to communicate quickly and transparently to the College community about the hate speech incident. This site is now live.
  • Establish a Bias Incident Response Team and procedures and protocols for reporting and responding to allegations of bias.

President Anne Kress

VP for Student Services and Chief Diversity Officer Lloyd Holmes

Assistant to the President for Title IX and Inclusion Kristin Lowe

  • Require equity and inclusion training for all MCC employees, beginning with the College's non-contract employees, officers, and president.

Assistant to the President for Human Resources and Organizational Development Melissa Fingar

Faculty Association President Bethany Gizzi

Civil Service Employees Association President Tom Pollizi

  • Require implicit bias training for all search committee members

Assistant to the President for Human Resources and Organizational Development Melissa Fingar

Assistant to the President for Title IX and Inclusion Kristin Lowe

  • Review the curriculum for Criminal Justice and Public Safety Training programs to assure that it includes instruction in and assessed learning outcomes related to implicit bias in policing.

Provost and VP for Academic Services Andrea Wade

VP EDIWS Todd Oldham

Improving Inclusiveness and Equity

  • Establish a new college-wide convening on Inclusiveness and Equity that will be held annually on the Brighton and Downtown campuses to provide an opportunity for professional development, education, dialogue, and action.

President Anne Kress

VP for Student Services and Chief Diversity Officer Lloyd Holmes

Executive Dean for the Downtown Campus Joel Frater

  • Establish an easily accessible and highly visible website--Empowering Excellence, Integrity, and Inclusion--to track all College action steps identified below and to communicate with the College community on matters related to equity.

President Anne Kress

  • Convene a task force composed of students, faculty, staff, administrators, and--as needed--external stakeholders to review and make recommendations on improving equity in College search, hire, and promotion processes in a way that will improve the alignment between the diversity of our faculty, staff, administration and that of our student body.

Executive Dean for the Downtown Campus Joel Frater

  • Establish a timeline for improving representation, especially among the College's teaching faculty, for public report to the MCC Board of Trustees.

President Anne Kress

  • Charge the President's Advisory Council--which includes representatives from President's Staff, Deans, Directors, SGA, SEGA, Faculty Senate, Faculty Association, Support Staff, and CSEA--with recommending college-wide strategies to improve equity in student success.

President Anne Kress

  • Review the College's General Education curriculum to assure that includes assessment of learning outcomes related to the College's values: integrity, excellence, empowerment, inclusiveness, collaboration, and stewardship.

Faculty Senate, through its President Amanda Colosimo

  • Review the First Year Experience curriculum to assure that it includes assessment of learning outcomes related to the College's values: integrity, excellence, empowerment, inclusiveness, collaboration, and stewardship.

VP for Student Services and Chief Diversity Officer Lloyd Holmes

  • Include the College's values on all letterhead and in all course information sheets to assure they are regularly communicated inside and outside of MCC.

Provost and Vice President for Academic Services Andrea Wade

Assistant to the President for Marketing and Community Relations Cynthia Mapes

  • Establish an online, anonymous portal for suggestions to improve operations, practices, and climate at the College and report out quarterly on the changes MCC is making in response to these suggestions.

Shared Leadership Coordinating Council through its Chair, Faculty Senate President and Professor Amanda Colosimo

  • Provide bi-annual reminders to the College community through the Employee and Student Tribune on the following:
    • Student Code of Conduct
    • Student Bill of Rights
    • Employee Code of Conduct
    • Grievance Procedures
    • Bias Incident Response Team
    • EthicsPoint Anonymous Hotline

Assistant to the President for Marketing and Community Relations Cynthia Mapes

Building a Shared Understanding of our Rights and Responsibilities

  • Develop a policy on Freedom of Speech that will include a clear definition of speech protected by the First Amendment and identify the procedure for reporting a bias incident at the College.

President Anne Kress

Shared Leadership Coordinating Council, through its Chair, Faculty Senate President and Professor Amanda Colosimo

  • Hold a forum on the First Amendment and the rights and responsibilities associated with free speech.

Governmental Relations Liaison Clayton Jones

Professor Karen Morris

  • Review and recommend changes, as appropriate, to the Student and Employee Codes of Conduct to address violations related to social media postings.

Shared Leadership Coordinating Council, through its Chair, Faculty Senate President and Professor Amanda Colosimo

VP for Student Services and Chief Diversity Officer Lloyd Holmes

Assistant to the President for Human Resources and Organizational Development Melissa Fingar

Anne Kress
President's Office
10/06/2017