The RVU Inclusive Excellence Statement was developed via input from the Inclusive Excellence Advisory Council, Leadership Council, Provost’s Council, Faculty Senate, and the Utah and Colorado Student Government Associations.

Rocky Vista University Inclusive Excellence Statement

We are Rocky Vista University (RVU), a diverse, equitable, and inclusive healthcare education university that recognizes, values, and respects the commonalities and differences reflected in our students, staff, faculty, and alumni. Our institution is guided by the core values of integrity, collegiality, compassion, diversity, equity, inclusivity, excellence, service, and innovation. The Inclusive Excellence (IE) framework serves as the foundation of our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, initiatives, and work. To ensure a diverse, equitable, and inclusive climate, IE focuses on implementing institutional/systemic changes by assigning responsibility for and engaging faculty, staff, and students in initiatives promoting DEI, and implements a broad, inclusive definition of diversity. IE recognizes the value of each member of the RVU community and their contributions to our vision of achieving new heights in medical education. It is through our diverse identities, backgrounds, perspectives, perceptions, and experiences – both visible and invisible – that we are able to leverage DEI in providing quality healthcare education.

Our commitment to working together, while recognizing our unique and diverse experiences, allows Rocky Vista University to thrive. As a core value, embracing diversity is an important component of our institutional journey.

RVU defines diversity as the recognition, reflection, and representation of individual differences within a community including, but not limited to culture, race, age, ethnicity or national origin, color, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, spiritual practices, political beliefs, mental and physical ability, socioeconomic status, individual life experiences, or other ideologies.

In addition to our diversity efforts, RVU is also committed to the achievement of equity and inclusivity. Equity is the implementation of unbiased policies and practices to ensure everyone has access to opportunities along with needs-based distribution of resources to obtain positive outcomes so that all individuals and groups may attain their full potential and no one is deprived regardless of identity, abilities, background, or socially determined circumstances.

 Inclusivity is the dynamic process of creating a welcoming environment that increases awareness, knowledge, and empathetic understanding to enable individuals with diverse backgrounds, abilities, insights, and experiences to interact in an open, fair, respectful, equitable, and collaborative fashion.

We at Rocky Vista University strive to be compassionate healthcare learners, educators and practitioners who embrace and champion diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Overview

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force (DEITF) will operate under the direction of the University’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Council (DEIAC). The DEITF is focused on identifying the next phase of Rocky Vista University’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and processes. An intensive 90-day, results-oriented planning initiative has been defined, focusing on identifying initial and ongoing measures to begin our journey of building our diversity, equity, and inclusion foundation.

This recommendation and related planning initiative will consist of four distinct task force teams, which will work independently as they each focus on one of four broad categories, created to identify operational processes and/or unique areas of focus within the institution.

Each task force plan will provide:

•  An actionable plan to be submitted to the DEIAC within a 90-day deadline. This plan should include an environmental scan of best practices, along with strategies for improving existing policies and processes and/or creating new innovative policies and processes. The objective is to identify those items that can be immediately implemented within the academic year;
• Intermediate and long-term goals for future planning are encouraged;
• Plans presented and submitted in written form describing:
  • The particular situation the plan is addressing;
  • A designated goal(s) that the plan intends to achieve;
  • Appropriate strategies for achieving the plan’s goal(s);
  • Appropriate measures to evaluate achievement of goals.

Plans should benefit the University with:

• Simple yet profound ideas to address cultural competency; innovative, forward thinking; measurable, curricular excellence within a new normal;
• Clear, actionable recommendations that support bold progress toward achieving greater unity as an RVU community;
• Projects to encourage personal responsibility, reflection and behavioral change while welcoming and including all members of the RVU community; and
• Educational strategies to address issues of bias, discrimination, and/or harassment.

Task force plans will also be expected to:

• Respect our collective human experience and leverage a broad range of differences;
• Prioritize and promote change where needed;
• Enhance our learning community;
• Develop measurable, evidence-driven action and accountability;
• Further diversify our students and workforce demographically and facilitate inclusive thoughts through fearless dialogue;
• Spark greater personal humility, deeper introspection, and responsibility to improve;
• Request additional resources, such as research and expert consultation to enhance plan development, as necessary.

Completed task force plans will be submitted to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Council
on or before an assigned deadline. Each group will present their plans to the DEIAC.

Task Force Organization

The composition of each task force will include members from both the Colorado and Utah campuses and will be comprised of both University employees and students. Task force members may be selected from nominations submitted by members of the University community and/or through self-nominations resulting from a University-wide open call for participants. The DEIAC
will serve as the selection committee. Task force members will be assigned an initial quarterly term; however, the term of any task force member may be either extended or abbreviated at the discretion of the Task Force Chair.

Task Force Chair

Each task force will be led by a Chair to be nominated by the DEIAC and recommended to the President who will make the final selections. The Chair will have responsibility for leadership of all task force activities including organizing meetings, establishing task force processes, and coordinating the development of the task force plan submission. The Chair will have the ability to make assignments within the task force and to require specific contributions from task force members. The Chair may solicit participation in task force activities from individuals outside of the task force, as necessary. The Chair may also make the decision to designate a Vice Chair to assist with her or his responsibilities.

Task Force Membership

Each task force will be composed of a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 employee members. In addition, each task force may have up to 3 student members. All task force members are expected to attend task force meetings. The final selection of member names for each task force will be announced University-wide.

Task Force Processes

Each task force will be required to meet every other week at minimum. Although each task force will work independently, each group should expect to be asked to participate in meetings with other task force groups where the general direction and progress of each group will be collectively discussed.

Mentors, advisory consultant(s), and administrative assistants may be requested by each task force to facilitate the completion of its work. These requests will be reviewed by the DEIAC and appropriate appointments will be made. It is expected that current diversity resources such as committees, individuals, and other internal subject matter experts will be called upon by task force members for assistance. The use of these existing institutional resources will not require DEIAC review or approval.

Each task force will work as a team to create a plan, which will be submitted in writing to the DEIAC upon completion, according to an assigned deadline. Each task force will be asked to present a summary of their plans orally to the DEIAC.

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Council will thoroughly review each submission and determine which submissions can be implemented quickly and which require additional time and planning for implementation. The DEIAC will coordinate the recommendations for review with the President to begin coordination with strategic planning and presentation to the Board of Trustees. It is anticipated that the next phase of intermediate and long-term planning will be necessary.

Diversity: The recognition, reflection, and representation of individual differences within a community including, but not limited to culture, race, age, ethnicity or national origin, color, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, spiritual practices, political beliefs, mental and physical ability, socioeconomic status, individual life experiences, or other ideologies.

Equity: The implementation of unbiased policies and practices to ensure everyone has access to opportunities along with needs-based distribution of resources to obtain positive outcomes so that all individuals and groups may attain their full potential and no one is deprived regardless of identity, abilities, background, or socially determined circumstances.

Inclusivity: The dynamic process of creating a welcoming environment which increases awareness, knowledge, and empathetic understanding to enable individuals with diverse backgrounds, abilities, insights, and experiences to interact in an open, fair, respectful, equitable, and collaborative fashion.

The curriculum at RVU is intended to expose students to cross-cultural and intergroup dynamics in the successful treatment of diverse patients or work contexts with people from many backgrounds. And while it is the responsibility of the faculty (not the students) to present material related to student’s preparation for delivering services in diverse settings, the diversity present in the student body can also be a great source for acquiring cross-cultural information and learning about different groups.

Learning about your fellow Rocky Vista University (RVU) students who represent different group or social identities can add significantly and positively to your healthcare education experience. RVU is no different than many other educational institutions in that students encounter people from diverse backgrounds, including (but not limited to) race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, veteran-status, nationality, religion, age, citizenship, and socio-economic status. Interacting with individuals who represent different cultural/social identity groups can be educationally beneficial, yet also challenging. That is, language, culture, worldviews, perspectives, customs, and traditions can be an asset in creating diverse learning environments and forming positive intercultural relationships, but can also become barriers that prevent students from creating conflict-free and productive learning and workplace climates.

The following are suggestions for enhancing your RVU intergroup learning experience via successfully interacting across cultural differences, easing the process of interacting across student individual and group differences, and maximizing the creation of positive and welcoming learning environments:

1 - Go out of your way to interact with as many students as you can, in particular with those who are different than you. RVU presents a tremendous opportunity to accomplish this goal. These interactions and dialogues will expand your knowledge about different individuals, identity groups, cultures, and backgrounds.

2 - Communication across diverse groups and individuals is a learned skill that will be helpful in your work as healthcare practitioners. Learning to effectively communicate in culturally diverse environments can be both extremely challenging and rewarding.

Thus, when interacting:

a. Be patient with other students and ask that they be patient with you as you try to learn about each other’s backgrounds.

b. In talking to someone who comes from a different background, try to ask questions in a respectful manner and at an appropriate time. Instead of asking, “Why don’t all Latinos speak Spanish?” try “I don’t know if you can answer a question for me. I’m not assuming that you can, but I was wondering if you could educate me a little bit on one aspect of Latino culture about which I have always been curious: Why do some Latinos speak Spanish and others do not?"

c. No matter how curious you are about someone’s physical characteristics or personal appearance, such as hair texture, color of skin, jewelry, or clothing, do not touch any of those personal items or characteristics unless you are given permission.

d. Allow each other to make mistakes as you develop your cross-cultural communication skills. Grant each other “redo's” and use mistakes and unintentional insensitivities as learning moments. If you make a mistake, apologize for the error and commit to learning from your mistake in order to avoid the faux pas in the future.

e. If you are the person being asked about your cultural background, be patient with the people who are doing the asking. In many cases, the other person does not know how or what to ask and is simply trying to learn.

f. Keep your assumptions and stereotypes in check. Don’t assume. Ask questions. Often, these assumptions are based on damaging stereotypes and can inhibit people from forming trusting, effective, and authentic relationships. Practice using social justice education communication techniques, such as calling-in (i.e., respectfully correcting the person) vs calling-out (i.e., attacking and embarrassing the person), active listening, cognitive empathy (i.e., perspective-taking), non-personalizing of issues, and other techniques that support the learning process during difficult conversations.

g. It is also important to keep intersectionality in mind when interacting with fellow students. From the perspective of intersectionality, we are all both members of ingroups and outgroups, depending on which social identities are being discussed. Thus, the old maxim of “treat others the way you want to be treated” is appropriate when interacting across differences.

h. Do not rely on your fellow students as the single source of all your diversity questions and education. Take responsibility for your own education by reading, researching, and talking to experts in the field.

For additional information on or help and support in practicing the guidelines above, contact the RVU Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at 720-875-2825.

DEI Dashboard (PDF)