The Office of Academic Affairs works collaboratively with administrators, staff, and campus organizations to create a welcoming climate for all members of the Loyola community. This contributes to the University's mission to teach students to learn, lead, and serve in a diverse and changing world.

Diversity and inclusion are guiding principles that inform all aspects of Academic Affairs, including hiring practices, curricular development and program administration, faculty development, and budgeting.

Key Efforts

Academic Affairs is committed to supporting efforts for sustained conversation and inquiry into key matters of equity and inclusion, especially racial justice.

• Infuses faculty development programming with attention to the needs, perspectives, and contributions of members of underrepresented groups.
• Coordinates several diversity and inclusion initiatives, including two headline events for the entire campus:
• The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation each January, inaugurated in 1993. The event provides an opportunity for Loyola and Baltimore to come together for meaningful inquiry into American legacies of race and racism. Recent speakers have included Ta-Nehisi Coates, Claudia Rankine, Teju Cole, and Roxane Gay. 
• Campus-wide Diversity Reading Groups each fall, which allows members of the community to join national conversations about equity and inclusion.
• Follows best hiring practices and serves as a resource to hiring departments to build a broad and diverse candidate pool leading to the best hire.
• Serves as a liaison to affinity groups, as well as a resource should new groups seek to form. Supports affinity groups on various inclusion efforts, such as Safe Zone training, campus programming, and policy recommendations.
• Contributes efforts within Academic Affairs or the University to gather climate data that inform academic policies, programs, and priorities. 
• Collaborates with other offices on diversity-related initiatives and serves as a general resource to the campus regarding climate-enhancing efforts.
• Collaborates with the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee to administer the Diversity Course Requirement.

Faculty Development Opportunities

• Time to Write: A Workshop Series with Michelle Thompson, Resistant Vision Coaching and Consulting, Spring 2022

Resources

Resources outside of Loyola

• 10 Inclusive Teaching Practices from the Association of College and university Educators (PDF)
• Comprehensive resources from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University (course design, grading, feedback, navigating difficult moments, key moves to setting up an equitable classroom, and more)
• Strategies for the First Day(s) of Class resources from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan
• Inclusive Teaching through Universal Design for Learning Workshop (includes evidence-based inclusive teaching and anti-racist pedagogical principles) from Caltech (48 minutes)

Resources at Loyola

Many of our Teaching Enhancement Workshops explore High-Impact Practices and Inclusive Teaching Practices. Here are a few that you might find particularly useful:

• Inclusive Teaching and Loyola’s Diversifying Student Body
• Race in the College Classroom
• What Are My Students Thinking: Many examples of how to get feedback from students throughout the semester
• Student-Driven Learning and High-Impact Teaching
• Heath, M., "Fighting Back Against Zoom Fatigue," Teaching Enhancement Workshop, Jan. 2021. (PDF)
• Loyola Counseling Center, "How to be Antiracist in the Classroom Resources." (PDF)

Recommended Books

• Addy, T. M., Dube, D., Mitchell, K. A., SoRelle, M. E., Longmire-Avital, B., & Felten, P. (2021, May 13). What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching (1st ed.). Stylus Publishing.
  • Podcast where Addy speaks about concepts in the book (45 minutes)
• Kohn, A., & Blum, S. D. (2020, December 1). Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) (Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) (1st ed.). West Virginia University Press.
• McNair, T. B., Bensimon, E. M., Malcom-Piqueux, L., & Pasquerella, L. (2020, January 22). From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Contact Us

Marianna Carlucci (mecarlucci@loyola.edu), Equity and Inclusion Faculty Fellow