The Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management (Raikes School) targets the development of leaders for technology-driven industries. Our students and graduates need to be prepared to contribute to a global community, seeking to understand, empathize with, and consider perspectives and needs of diverse races, ethnicities, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, backgrounds, and identities. To achieve this goal, all people need to feel they belong in our community. In striving for inclusive excellence, we recognize the Raikes School must commit to valuing and welcoming diverse perspectives. This commitment will better our community, better each individual within and who interacts with our community, and increase the impact of current and future work our students, faculty, staff, and alumni produce.
To build the Raikes School’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategic Plan, a committee was formed consisting of the Executive Director, Director of Recruitment and Student Success, and Assistant Director of Academics. The committee held conversations with current students, alumni, community organizations, high school counselors and teachers, UNL campus partners, industry partners, and with the Raikes School Corporate Advisory Board. The committee identified strengths, challenges, opportunities, and needs of the DEI mission of the Raikes School and ultimately created a set of goals and objectives:
Goal 1: Increase diversity, equity, and belonging in all aspects of the Raikes School's academic mission.
Objective 1: Hold faculty accountable for commitment to DEI.
Objective 2: Annually assess the degree to which our curriculum and pedagogy address DEI.
Objective 3: Annually assess the classroom climate using course evaluation data.
Goal 2: Recruit, retain, and graduate students from diverse racial, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic backgrounds, identities, and experiences
Objective 1: Continue the Raikes School summer camp.
Objective 2: Build a broader pipeline of prospective Raikes School students.
Objective 3: Consider racial, ethnic, gender, home community, socioeconomic status representation, and possible barriers throughout the recruitment and selection process.
Objective 4: Foster a sense of belonging.
Objective 5: Complete meaningful assessment.
Goal 3: Recruit, retain, train, and support a diverse community of faculty, staff, and Corporate Advisory Board Members.
Objective 1: Recruit and retain faculty and staff.
Objective 2: Increase racial and gender diversity on and DEI training of the Raikes School corporate advisory board.
Objective 3: Foster a sense of belonging.
The Raikes School's full Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan, which includes additional background information and detailed action steps, can be found linked here.