God-honoring Diversity
We support a diverse university across lines of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, socioeconomic status, class, age, and ability.
For more information, please read APU’s positional statement on diversity.
God-honoring Diversity Team Members
Arlene Sanchez-Walsh, Ph.D.
Diversity Coordinator
Jan Wenger, M.A.
Executive Assistant
Diversity Fellows
Debbie Gin, M.Div.
Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Theology
The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
Rema Reynolds, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Counseling and School Psychology
Stephen Brown, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor
Graduate Social Work
Richard Martinez, Ed.D.
Associate Professor
Foundations and Transdisciplinary Studies
Overriding Goals
By fall 2012, the university will have:
- established and/or allocated new/existing personnel, finances, and other infrastructure resources to facilitate the recruitment and retention of individuals of diverse backgrounds and abilities.
- demonstrated that APU policies, programs, and practices continually involve faculty and students in diversity-related activities and that the quantity and quality of diversity-related scholarly productivity has increased significantly.
- implemented assessment measures that ensure evaluative data is having an impact on the design, implementation, and further assessment of future policies, programs, and practices related to diversity.
- integrated diversity-related content into the curricula and pedagogies across disciplines and substantiated the link between articulated diversity-related student outcomes and the actual student learning that occurs.
Research Questions and Strategic Goals
Capacity and Preparatory Review
CPR Q5. How does institutional infrastructure facilitate the recruitment and retention of faculty, staff, and students of diverse backgrounds and abilities?
CPR Q6. How do policies, programs, and practices demonstrate and encourage an institutional commitment to God-honoring diversity?
By the end of the CPR, we expect:
- the Office of Diversity Planning and Assessment will collaborate with the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment to revamp the program review process for data-gathering purposes.
- the ODPA will collaborate with the OIRA to revamp TaskStream for data-gathering purposes.
- the university will increase academic support for students of color by developing a mentorship pilot program launched under the leadership of the Office of Diversity Planning and Assessment.
- the ODPA will emply measures to increase the volume and visibility of diversity-related policies, programs, and practices through:
- funding for the creation of brochures and information explaining function of the office.
- funding for the creation of newsletter-type materials, keeping the community abreast of progress in “God-honoring diversity.”
- revisions for websites of ODPA and Christians on Diversity in the Academy (CDA) Conference.
Educational Effectiveness Review
EER Q7. To what extent does sustained campus-wide engagement in activities and issues related to God-honoring diversity impact student learning?
EER Q8. To what extent does faculty engagement in God-honoring diversity-related activities and issues inform and impact teaching, scholarship, and service?
By the end of the EER, we expect:
- the ODPA will establish an ongoing, semesterly presence within strategic university bodies (i.e. Board of Trustees, Academic Cabinet, President’s Council, Faculty Senate, Chairs Council, Fall Faculty Workshop, etc.) for the purpose of fostering constructive diversity-related engagement and dialogue.
- the university will collaborate with the ODPA to ensure the inplementation of diversity-related content in the pedagogies and curricula across all disciplines by:
- providing support as training curricula are written, diversity-related content is integrated in the classroom, and student learning diversity is assessed.
- providing funding for the creation of materials and the procuring of resources for the creation of developmental programs.
- the ODPA and the Office of Faculty Evaluation will pursue integration of God-honoring diversity components.
