Current and Ongoing DEI Activities

Current and Ongoing Activities:

The DEI Committee publishes its minutes for the community. UConn community members can access them here.

  • Leading departmental DEI assessment, to be undertaken in the academic year 2024-2025.

  • Utilizing an anonymous DEI feedback system.

  • Funding interested faculty, students, and staff to attend DEI workshops and trainings, including ArtEquity programs Strategies for Change: Becoming an Anti-Racist Theatre organization, and Everyday Justice: Antiracism as Daily Practice. 

  • Producing an annual “Forward Together” guide on good DEI-based practices for faculty and staff based on community feedback, which is internally published during the academic year.

  • Developing and enacting plans for recruiting and supporting students, faculty, and staff from a wide range of backgrounds and held identities. The "DEI Hiring Resource Guide" is available for all searches starting in 2022 and beyond.

  • Continuing our departmental work with students, faculty, and staff with consultant and DEIB trainer Dr. Marcus Ware. 

  • Maintaining the DEI bulletin board, which features a new artist spotlight every month, and includes news bulletins on DEI related stories in our industry.

  • Stewarding the DEI lending library, located in DRMU 268 (Dramatic Arts office print room).

  • Fostering transparency for the Department of Dramatic Arts DEI Committee through open sessions and published meeting minutes and agendas accessible to all.

  • Continuing the dialogue with students about where the department needs to improve in its DEI efforts and what students view as priorities. 

  • Assisting faculty in their efforts to diversify and decolonize their curriculum.

  • Passed a requirement for all undergraduate students to take at least one course from a block of courses focusing on BIPOC theatre traditions and histories. This requirement is in addition to the University General Education Diversity Requirement, ensuring that students engage these topics within their primary area of study.

  • Holding ourselves in the committee and in the department accountable for action and progress, including restorative practices.