Developing and Implementing an Institutional Research Office Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan

This article describes how a large Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRDS) office engaged in efforts to promote culturally responsive and inclusive institutional research (IR) practices that take into account the increasingly diverse student, faculty, and staff populations we serve. We describe how we developed a diversity, equity and inclusion (D.E.I.) strategic plan that addressed the following: (a) ensuring our Mission Statement reflects our commitment to diversity; (b) applying an equity lens to our work; (c) supporting campus-wide D.E.I. efforts while helping the campus live out a commitment to D.E.I.; (d) implementing internal office practices to support the recruitment and retention of a diverse team; and (e) ensuring IR professionals have access to and opportunities to learn about current trends in equity and inclusion. Our approach was guided by Kendi's conceptualization of antiracism, and we examine how we have opportunities to make antiracist decisions in various aspects of our work, including how we frame IR, analyze and label data, and interpret results given local contexts and structural inequities.