Dear Kroc School community members,

The Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies is deeply committed to ending systemic racism in higher education. This academic year we added new programming such as the “Activist-in-Residence” initiative to bring more diverse leading practitioners to our campus. Yet, we are well aware that we need to do more and better. Therefore, the Kroc School is creating a DEI Working Group with the purpose of proposing viable DEI strategies, serving as a hub that gathers input and feedback from school and university faculty, staff, students, and alumni, and helping in identifying resources for implementation when appropriate. The Kroc School DEI Working Group will be composed of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. If you want to nominate yourself or others, please complete this brief nomination form, by March 12th.

Dr. Richard Miller, Interim Vice-Provost of DEI and co-chair of the University DEI task-force, recently celebrated the commitment USD has demonstrated to advance DEI. Today, there are many ongoing DEI initiatives happening across campus. Because university units are different in their structure, resources and aims, an overarching goal of the University DEI Task-Force is to provide guidelines and tools that encourage and support each unit in shaping its DEI initiative as it sees fit. As units continue to develop strategies that achieve impact, it is imperative that we coordinate and learn from others. The Kroc DEI Working Group will guide the School in that aim. It’s clear we don’t always have to reinvent the wheel because there are many lessons and best practices to learn from, albeit daring to be original when we see it makes most sense to meet the priorities and goals of the Kroc School.

To that end, the DEI Working Group will be charged with helping the School address the following questions:

• How will the Kroc Community define diversity, equity and inclusion?
• How do we integrate DEI into the larger strategic priorities of the Kroc School?
• How do we align Kroc proposals with the USD DEI Task Force strategies and recommendations?
• How can we leverage our finite resources with our DEI priorities?

The expected outputs for 2021 include developing a living document with actionable proposals to advance the DEI goals of the Kroc School that are aligned with our strategic priorities and goals, and that contribute to university DEI objectives. This document will build on the current inventory of ongoing DEI related efforts and initiatives, with recommendations for assessment that will allow us to identify gaps and areas of opportunity. The proposed recommendations for the Kroc School need to consider short-term, mid-range and long-term items and goals.

Sincerely,

Dean Patricia Márquez