Dear Faculty and Staff,
Welcome back to the start of a new academic year. While it is hard to say goodbye to the quiet days of summer, the onset of classes brings so much excitement and enthusiasm that it’s contagious. I look forward to seeing the creativity and innovation that our CENG faculty, staff and students unleash this year.
I want to particularly welcome the new members of the CENG community. In addition to our new students, we have numerous new faculty and staff across the college. Please be sure to make them feel at home.
We will be kicking off several new initiatives this year. These include debuting new guidelines on inclusive hiring practices, a new professional development program for incoming faculty and an exciting micro-credentialing program for our students. Additionally, we will continue to work on our Graduation 2025 initiatives and we will be preparing our ABET self-study in advance of our fall 2020 site visit.
Our diversity and inclusion efforts will also continue. The committees of staff and faculty focused on D&I did outstanding work last year, and we look forward to picking up on their path forward this year. The guidelines on inclusive hiring originated from last year’s recruiting and retention committee work. The programming committee’s work led to greater diversity in our SURP program participants this year. Additionally, the climate and culture committee developed a number of excellent recommendations, which we will work to implement this year, including developing a CENG strategic action plan around D&I topics. The committee, which focused on developing a college diversity statement, made some wonderful proposals to the college council, leading to our new CENG diversity statement:
“The Cal Poly College of Engineering fosters an environment based in love, empathy and respect where all are supported, energized and empowered. Opportunities to contribute exist for all and a broad range of voices and experiences are necessary as we co-create our future. We are developing an inclusive community where everyone can be their own unique selves.”
Based on committee recommendations we are also renaming the D&I committee, which will now be known as the committee on Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, or JEDI. Now we can all work to become JEDI knights! This year will bring the release of the CPX climate survey results, and we look forward to working with the university on strategic actions around CPX. I know there are numerous other exciting initiatives that are being developed in our departments and programs, none of which would be possible without the hard work of our staff and faculty.
I will continue to host drop-in hours this year, and I look forward to visiting department and IAB meetings. I want to keep the lines of communication open, so don’t hesitate to reach out to me to share good news or to raise concerns as needed.
I wish you the best as we begin this year.
