UI LEADERSHIP
It has been great to be back on campus! While being vigilant in our effort to battle the ongoing pandemic, nothing replaces our students, faculty, and staff being together at the University of Iowa. The past year’s events have shown the importance of our work and continuing our momentum to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus experience. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences continues to lead this effort, and I applaud the creative, successful, and ongoing initiatives. Fantastic work is happening for the new university strategic plan to embed DEI into our institution. As the process continues this spring, we are giving careful attention to the alignment of the university with our colleges’ strategic plans. You will see an effort focused on our values, accountability, education, recruitment, retention, mentorship, recognition, and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff to build a new future for the University of Iowa. You will see similarities in the institution’s effort and the new CLAS Strategic Plan to promote an inclusive environment and build stronger infrastructure to support our DEI efforts across our campus – and this is by design. While a plan is the vital backbone of our efforts, it comes to life through the people committed to living it. There has been a collective effort to continue the safe and challenging discussions across our institution, allowing everyone to grow. We must continue to build positive respect for each other every day by listening to learn rather than reacting. It is crucial we retain our current Hawkeyes while we work to recruit an inclusive student, faculty, and staff community. Having many different opinions, cultures, and diverse thoughts is our path forward to prepare the next generation of leaders. Our efforts will focus on building authentic relationships with each other, growing our community to support an inclusive population, and providing paths to leadership distinction. We focus on unity, but what does this mean? It means each of us embraces our differences of opinion. It means we seek out and listen to others. As we embrace our differences, we grow in our understanding and respect for each other. Our mutual care for each other brings us closer together as teachers, colleagues, and students of our campus. Our results will be more substantial and impactful to achieve our shared mission of education and research. I encourage you to lend your voice at the departmental, collegiate, and university levels. The Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is here to support you and the Hawkeye community. Liz Tovar, PhD Executive Officer, Associate Vice President Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion , The University of Iowa
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