Policy 1B.5 - Institutional Equity

Part 1: Purpose

Lake Superior College is committed to inclusion and equity and strives to establish a climate that welcomes and affirms the contributions of all students and employees. LSC is guided by our mission of providing an inclusive environment and by our values of community, collaboration, equity, diversity, inclusion, trust, and respect, and strives to provide students and employees with equitable opportunities for success. To help effectuate these equity goals, LSC is committed to a policy of institutional equity.

Part 2: Definitions

Subpart A: Anti-Racist

Any measure that produces and sustains racial equity between groups. Policies may include unspoken rules that govern higher education routines and decision-making, such as admissions, faculty hiring, and evaluation, as well as the criteria that guide judgments about quality, excellence, and merit. Being an anti-racist begins with understanding the institutional nature of racial matters and accepting that all actors in a racialized society are affected materially (receive benefits or disadvantages) and ideologically by the racial structure.

Subpart B: Diversity

Refers to the group differences amongst individuals, such as by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences.

Subpart C: Equity

The proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes, and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts, and outcomes for all. Specific topical definitions are below. Considered to be distinct from equality, the term acknowledges that addressing unequal outcomes for different groups in society may require a re-distribution of inputs/resources, to address the impact of historical and systemic oppression.

Subpart D: Inclusion

Authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power.  In a campus context, inclusion is the active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals and/or groups might connect in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions.

Part 3: Policy

This policy requires that considerations of equity and justice are embedded in decisions at all levels of the college, including leadership, operations, classrooms, pedagogy, programming, investments, facilities, and policy development. The goal of this policy is to institutionalize an approach to decision-making, pedagogy, program and policy development, implementation, and evaluation, which improves outcomes and reduces educational disparities and inequities for the people we serve and those who work at or visit LSC. The purposes of this policy are to:

1. Uphold LSC’s commitment to Minnesota State system-wide goals on equity and inclusion and to LSC’s mission, vision, and values.
2. Reinforce LSC’s dedication of time and resources, at all levels and in all positions and areas, toward creating and sustaining inclusive educational environments and workspaces.
3. Acknowledge a historical legacy of exclusion in the Minnesota State system, and in higher education in general, from opportunities for people from a variety of backgrounds.
4. Affirm LSC’s commitment to taking action to reduce the impacts of racism and to acknowledge the causes and effects of racism while committing Lake Superior College to be an anti-racist campus through intentional decision-making processes.
5. Create pathways for action to undo the harmful impacts of historical educational exclusion in higher education.
6. Guide equity mindfulness in all decision-making processes.
7. Acknowledge equity work as a recruitment and retention strategy.
8. Pledge commitment to our community that LSC will provide a quality education that prepares all students to participate in our economy, society, and democracy.

History

Date Implemented: February 2024

President's Signature Date: February 8, 2024