The rollout of courses that meet the DEI essential competency requirements is moving slowly.
Dr. J. Sage Elwell, DEI Essential Competency Committee Chair, told the Faculty Senate members Thursday that to date one course has been approved and two others are being revised.
The registrar’s office will make DEI a core requirement once enough courses are offered for students to meet the requirement. Elwell explained why the core designation is still in progress.
“We cannot ask our students to complete a core designation that we do not have enough courses for them to satisfy,” said Elwell. “So we need to build up a critical mass before we can get that on the books.”
Elwell said that once more classes are passed through the registrar’s office, the core designation will be up and running.
Associate professor of economics Dr. Edward McNertney is currently working on the web portal and accepting submissions from faculty for new courses to be approved.
Faculty Senate chair Sean Atkinson reminded faculty they should think about how they can add DEI into their curriculum.
Reconciliation Day
The initial report from the TCU Race & Reconciliation Initiative is expected April 21. The committee chair, Dr. Frederick Gooding, told Faculty Senate members that at Reconciliation Day he will share the results from what the committee has learned from the initiative.
Gooding was a guest speaker at Thursday night’s Faculty Senate meeting.
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In addition, recommendations shared with the Board of Trustees will be presented, as well as a special announcement from Chancellor Victor Boschini.
RRI committee member and English professor Dr. Karen Steele is in charge of sign-ups for physically attending the event. Gooding encouraged faculty and their students to attend.
“We want to come together so we can move forward together,” said Gooding.
As the chair, Gooding held numerous webinars, had been in contact with faculty, visited classrooms and had many productive and positive conversations regarding Race and Reconciliation.
Last night Gooding sat down with Fox 4 to discuss the efforts of the Race and Reconciliation initiative.
