Penn State to share updates, plans for DEIB later this month in ‘virtual conversation’
Following about a month-long delay, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi will host a live “virtual conversation” at 2 p.m. April 20 on the university’s plans and progress involving diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB).
Those interested will be able to watch the event live at liveevents.psu.edu. For those who miss the event, it will be archived shortly afterward and available on the same website.
The “virtual conversation” will come nearly two months after Bendapudi outlined her “vision for the future” while the university simultaneously released a promised DEIB dashboard, designed to monitor outcomes for historically marginalized groups and to help hold the university accountable. On Feb. 27, when the dashboard was released, the university twice referenced a “town hall” that would take place in March and would better explain the dashboard, along with progress and plans related to DEIB.
Last week, a university spokesperson confirmed to the CDT that the live event was pushed back until April due to a scheduling conflict with a faculty senate meeting — one that was scheduled out more than a year in advance. In a news release dated Wednesday, “town hall” is replaced with the phrase “virtual conversation,” implying that questions would not come from the university community during April’s live event.
“The format of a live discussion was determined to be the optimum way for the president and others to share with the community findings from the DEIB university-wide assessment and recommendations from that overview,” spokesperson Lisa Powers told the CDT in a written statement. “It would be difficult to expect members of our community to ask questions in a town hall format when they had not yet heard any of the results or recommendations, nor had time to digest them. This is only the first step in this process and future discussions or town halls will be planned as needed.”
According to a news release from the university, the live discussion will entail Bendapudi and Jennifer Hamer — special adviser for institutional equity and interim associate vice provost for educational equity — discussing the process to inventory/evaluate DEIB programs, key findings, recommendations and initial next steps.
Concern about Penn State’s commitment to DEIB has existed long before Bendapudi took office last May. But Bendapudi faced significant backlash in October after canceling the Center for Racial Justice, which some saw as an important step forward. A month later, during a town hall, she asked for “time” and “a little grace” in achieving racial justice goals.
The April 20 virtual conversation will mark her first universitywide discussion since December.
“I am so thankful for Jennifer and her team’s leadership throughout this process,” Bendapudi said Wednesday, in addressing the April event. “While they were working under a condensed timeline, I appreciate the high-level view their work took, which will help us to better understand Penn State’s opportunities and challenges as we consider short and long-term priorities for advancing DEIB across the university.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2023 at 4:53 PM.
