Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

In Fall 2020, the Dean’s Office created a Diversity Committee for Student Excellence, comprised of faculty, staff and students. This committee focuses on advising and programming initiatives coupled with learning opportunities designed to support and broaden our diverse student body. The committee seeks to ensure that all members of the CAS community feel valued and supported.

CAS partnered with the Institute for Racial Justice to create a new interdisciplinary minor in Race and Ethnicity, launched in May of 2023. The new interdisciplinary minor program is headquartered in the Department of Sociology, but will also include classes from the social science departments of Anthropology, Criminal Justice and Criminology, Political Science, and Psychology, as well as from the humanities.

Dean Schraeder assembled the Task Force on Faculty Gender Equity in Spring 2021 to explore gender equity issues in CAS, including but not limited to pay equity, tenure and promotion rates, and support for family and care work. The final report was submitted in January of 2023. This task force is co-chaired by Betsy Hemenway, Director of the Women Studies and Gender Studies Program and Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, and Anne Grauer, Professor in the Department of Anthropology.

The “Building Community Bridges” scholarship award was created and endowed in 2021. This scholarship annually recognizes current Juniors and Seniors from marginalized groups (including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and disability) in CAS who have a positive impact at Loyola and/or in their communities through their advancement of diversity and inclusion initiatives. Student applicants need to demonstrate how they have had a positive impact at Loyola and/or in other communities through their advancement of diversity and inclusion initiatives.

The Dual Credit Program, which was moved to CAS in 2022, is expanding its outreach to underresourced and underrepresented schools across Chicago. This effort is part of a strategic partnership between CAS and the Institute for Racial Justice. The goal is to significantly expand the size of the Dual Credit program by reaching out to underresourced and underrepresented schools in Chicago. This effort is being led by Dr. Brigid Shultz, Director, Dual Credit Program.

CAS held the Speakers Series on Global Racism in Spring 2021 that was coordinated with the directors of five regionally based interdisciplinary programs: African Studies & African Diaspora, Asian Studies, European Studies, Islamic World Studies, and Latin American and Latina/o Studies. The purpose of these lectures was to shine an interdisciplinary light on issues of global racism in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Western Hemisphere.