The School of Information supports diversity, equity and inclusion (School Goal #5), and participates in Institute-wide DEI activities. Major DEI activities from the School of Information include:
Faculty and staff training workshop in spring 2018 that invited Dialogues on Diversity to campus to provide implicit bias education
Held the “Diversifying the Curriculum Event” whcih invited leaders from campus and from the wider information field to campus to give talks and engage the faculty and staff in activities around identity, expressing DEI in syllabi, DEI teaching practices at other iSchools, and library resources around diversifying information science.
In fall 2019, the School of Information Curriculum Committee introduced the “DEI Addendum” that requires that proposers of new or reviewed courses consider how DEI is expressed in course proposals. In December 2019, the School approved its five year Strategic Plan (2019–2024), which include seven DEI initiatives that tie-into the Institute-wide DEI plan.
In fall 2020, the School of Information Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee was established that works to move forward DEI initiatives from the Strategic Plan. In spring 2021, SI DEI hosted a 3-part speaker series for students on DEI topics titled “Breaking Barriers” (see event #1, #2, #3), as well as the “Decolonizing the Curriculum” event for SI faculty, which began conversations among faculty around indigenous knowledges in the curriculum.
In fall 2021, SI DEI held an Open Forum on DEI to solicit needs and programming ideas from the community (see flier). In spring 2022, SI DEI held four workshops or field trips on DEI topics for students (see event #1, #2, #3, #4) as well as a faculty workshop on next steps for incorporating DEI into curriculum and teaching (see flier).
In fall 2022, SI DEI organized a workshop for students around addressing conflict in the workplace (see flier) and a follow-up workshop in spring 2023 (see flier). A workshop for faculty was held in March 2023 around making updates to assignments and other parts of syllabi to align them with the MSLIS core curriculum learning outcomes that made DEI learning outcomes in core courses more explicit (see flier). It also allocated and awarded $5,000 matching scholarships to recipients of the American Library Association (ALA) Spectrum Scholars program from academic years 2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2023/2024. For a full list of ALA Spectrum Scholars from Pratt Institute, please visit this webpage.
In 2023/2024 school year, the DEI committee hosted several events to the community, including field trips to engage the city and talks (see event #1, #2, #3), and connected the annual Ethics & Technology forum with the topic of AI and DEI. We also co-sponsored “Fridays in May: QBIPOC Peer-Networking Program,” which is part of Prof. Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz’s DEI Faculty Fellowship.
For more information about DEI initiatives at the School of Information, please contact the chair of the School of Information DEI Committee, Dean Cocciolo.
