In Year One of the strategic plan, the university established a dedicated DEI activity fund to encourage innovative ideas that promote, enhance, and celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion campuswide. Under the terms of this three-year program, all students, faculty, and staff were encouraged to submit proposals for individual grants of up to $10K. In this third and final year of the DEI Innovation Grant Program, teams of faculty, students, and staff reviewed 134 applications—with 80 of those submitted by students. The 18 winners received funding that totaled nearly $95,000.
The inaugural Request for Proposals took place in April of 2017. During the first two cycles, 149 applications for one-time grants were received, reflecting a broad range of issues and concerns. The objective was to fund DEI-related ideas and projects with scalability potential for broader use. Following a review of each application by teams of faculty, staff, students, and DEI central office staff, a total of 40 grants have been selected for full or partial funding over the three year grant period.
The results for the third final year of this grant program included:
- 6 staff awards for a total of $38,016
- 6 student awards totaling $24,685
- 6 faculty awards totaling $32,274