Responses to Concerns of Alumni of Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership for Social Justice

Doctoral alumni expressed concerns regarding “the lack of avenues for two-way engagement with alumni, which include the disbanding of the Doctoral Alumni Board.” 

Short Term: A more detailed follow-up response from Dr. Karie Huchting’s June 12th email to alumni which includes a tentative plan on how the Doctoral Program plans to address the issues discussed.

Responses: 

1. Dr. Bill Parham met with the group that sent the initial email of concerns and continued to meet with them through the completion of his term as Interim Associate Director of the Doctoral Program. Subsequently, Dr. Rebecca Stephenson, now director of the Doctoral Program, continued to formally meet with Doctoral alumni, and Dr. Huchting continued to serve as a faculty point of contact.
2. Dean Young directly responded to a July 2020 letter sent to her with an email. This was followed by meetings with concerned alumni on July 9, 2020, and September 2, 2020. Each time the Doctoral alumni group has reached out, Dean Young has responded with information and updates relevant to their inquiries. The most recent meetings with the group’s representative, Dr. Carla McCullough, occurred in Fall 2022.

Short Term: A discussion with the current SOE Dean about key issues, action items, and a collective commitment to supporting and holding the Doctoral Program accountable for measurable changes.

Responses:

1. The SOE Dean met with the representatives of the Doctoral Alumni committee, Dr. Carla McCullough and Dr. Dana Coleman, to discuss key issues, action items, and a collective commitment to supporting and holding the Doctoral Program accountable for measurable changes.
2. Dean Young connected Drs. McCullough and Coleman with key contacts at SOE for moving forward their request for official alumni group status. She also connected them to Maggie Bove-LaMonica, then the chair of the SOE Alumni Board, to ensure the Doctoral Alumni’s requests were in alignment with the SOE Alumni Association. Drs. McCullough and Coleman also received a copy of sample governance bylaws that could be used to establish a formal Doctoral Alumni Association at LMU.
3. Fall 2020 to present: The leadership, faculty, and staff of the LMU SOE included an objective in SOE's strategic plan focused on engaging in regular equity audits of its policies, procedures, and practices to ensure that the curricula of all programs (including the doctoral program) reflected the SOE’s commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and social justice. Specifically, Goal One of the LMU SOE Strategic Plan, which was finalized in summer of 2022, reads as follows:

Priority Goal One:  The School of Education will support its mission and vision by integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout SOE programs, practices, and partnerships.

Objective 1.1: All SOE programs, practices, and partnerships will reflect the SOE's commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and social justice.

Objective 1.2: The SOE will increase the diversity of its faculty, staff, and student populations, thereby contributing to LMU's desire to increase the diversity of its students, faculty, and staff.

Objective 1.3: The SOE will audit and revise all programs' curricula to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Objective 1.4: The SOE will become the first SOE in the country to offer a Seal of Biliteracy and/or Bicultural Badge through all of its programs.

Alignment to University Plan: The objectives that fall under the SOE’s Priority Goal One, align most closely to the University’s Spotlight Initiative One.

Doctoral alumni expressed concerns regarding the “the lack of avenues for two-way engagement with alumni which include the disbanding of the Doctoral Alumni Board.” 

Short Term: The reinstatement of the doctoral-specific alumni board with clear guidelines for the selection process, term of membership, and duties for council members. This board should also include at least one ex officio member on the SOE Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Responses:

1. Summer and Fall 2020: Dean Young met with the co-chairs of the Doctoral Alumni to discuss the development of a doctoral-specific alumni committee as part of the SOE Alumni Association. Dean Young connected the Doctoral Alumni with Maggie Bove-LaMonica, then the president of the SOE Alumni Association Board of Directors, to discuss the Doctoral Alumni’s requests, and provided sample governance bylaws. An Ex-Officio position was created on the SOE Alumni Association Board of Directors for a representative from the Doctoral Alumni Committee. 
2. Fall 2020: Dean Young introduced the appointed representatives of the Doctoral Alumni group, Dr. Carla McCullough and Dr. Dana Coleman, to key members of the LMU Alumni Relations staff. The doctoral alumni met with Dean Young and Drs. Parham and Huchting in December 2020 to review their draft bylaws. 
3. February 2021: The Doctoral Alumni Association E-Newsletter was launched. One announcement included in the newsletter was the return of the Doctoral Alumni Committee with the purpose of “supporting the Ed.D. Program in Educational Leadership for Social Justice to fulfill its goals, while simultaneously leading efforts to positively impact the communities we serve.” A survey was included in the newsletter for alumni to complete expressing their interest in participating. Each subsequent newsletter requested news to share and updates to contact information.
4. May 2022: Members of the Doctoral Alumni organization attended the Doctoral Hooding ceremony and used the opportunity to introduce themselves to graduating students and invite their engagement in the alumni organization.
5. June 2022: In an email to SOE dated June 8, 2022, Dr. McCullough stated, “We have been pleased to work collaboratively with Doctoral and SOE leadership on responding to the alumni’s call to reinstate the alumni board. We have made great progress in this area and have recently engaged 130+ alumni which include graduates from the class of 2022 at last month’s Research Symposium and Hooding Ceremony. We are also in the process of identifying ambassadors for each cohort with the goal of achieving 100% engagement for Fall 2022.”
6. November 2022: Dr. McCullough shared with Dean Young and Dr. Stephen McCray, Board President for the SOE Alumni Association, that the Doctoral Alumni group was not being supported by the university or the SOE. She indicated that they were told they were not able to have status as an alumni board, have an account with the university, or have a web page. The structure of alumni relations had changed at the university, and subsequent to a meeting with Dr. McCullough, Dean Young reached out to Lisha McGrue to inquire about these concerns and to determine how the university could support the Doctoral Alumni’s work. Ms. McGrue is to report back to Dean Young and Dr. McCray by mid-January 2023. 

Doctoral alumni expressed concerns regarding the “inability of the faculty, staff, and leadership of the School of Education and Doctoral Program to adequately communicate the values and ideals of social justice educators,” and pointed to the “tone-deaf messaging of the original email to alumni dated June 3, 2020 viewed as a symptom of larger systemic issues within the School of Education and the university as a whole.”

Short Term: Any subsequent scheduled forums surrounding the ongoing diversity and inclusion work must have clear objectives and action items that are also vetted by a diverse group of faculty and alumni.

Response:

1. Fall 2020: Dean Young and Dr. Will Perez participated in several University-designed and facilitated open forums and listening sessions. 
2. Spring 2021 to present: SOE has organized and hosted numerous DEI-related events and programming. These events were organized by the DAC, CEEL, academic programs, and the SOE Alumni Association. The organizing teams were a diverse set of SOE faculty and staff and, in some cases, alumni. These events included guest speakers focused on DEI issues (including Bettina Love, Tyrone Howard, Howard Fuller, Lecia Brooks, and Linda Tillman); workshops such as the alumni-led workshop “Race in the time of COVID; How to Facilitate healing conversations at school, work or home in 2020,” and a series of professional learning sessions for SOE faculty and staff, which were organized and led by the DAC.
3. To date, no subsequent forums specifically for doctoral alumni were requested, planned, or held.

Long Term: A commitment from current faculty and leadership to complete internal work on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice including but not limited to: Critical Race Theory, white supremacy, white fragility, restorative justice, and anti-racism.

Responses:

SOE’s leadership, faculty, and staff have demonstrated ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and social justice in several ways, including the below:

1. Fall 2020: The Diversity Action Committee (DAC) was established as a standing committee.
2. Fall 2020 to present: SOE has engaged its faculty and staff in DEI professional development and training on an ongoing basis, including:
   1. Several formal professional learning opportunities for faculty and staff, Fall 2020 to present
   2. Implicit Bias Training for SOE staff working in the office of the dean, Fall 2022
   3. Participation in the University's training session "Hiring for Mission and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" for all members of faculty search committees, Fall 2020 to present
3. January 2021: Dr. Will Perez was appointed to serve as SOE’s inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a new staff position created by Dean Young in Fall 2020. In August 2022, Dr. Bill Parham became SOE's second Associate Dean for DEI.
4. January 2021 to present: SOE sponsored a DEI-focused speaker series to focus on and inform our community about critical issues in the fields of education and mental health, featuring renowned educators and scholars such as Lecia Brooks, Bettina Love, Tyrone Howard, Howard Fuller, Linda Tillman, Antonia Darder, and Angela Vanzuela.
5. Spring 2021: The SOE Alumni Association Board of Directors spent time as a group to unpack its identity and the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the work of the SOEAA, and offered a series of related workshops for SOE alumni in the following weeks.
6. Spring 2021 to present: The SOE included an objective in its strategic plan focused on engaging in regular equity audits of its policies, procedures, and practices. Specifically, Goal One of the LMU SOE Strategic Plan reads as follows:

Priority Goal One:  The School of Education will support its mission and vision by integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout SOE programs, practices, and partnerships.

Objective 1.1: All SOE programs, practices, and partnerships will reflect the SOE's commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and social justice.

Objective 1.2: The SOE will increase the diversity of its faculty, staff, and student populations, thereby contributing to LMU's desire to increase the diversity of its students, faculty, and staff.

Objective 1.3: The SOE will audit and revise all programs' curriculum to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Objective 1.4: The SOE will become the first SOE in the country to offer a Seal of Biliteracy and/or Bicultural Badge through all of its programs.

Alignment to University Plan: The objectives that fall under the SOE’s Priority Goal One, align most closely to the University’s Spotlight Initiative One. 

7. Fall 2022: As part of a day-long retreat for faculty and staff, attendees engaged in a school-wide conversation on the meaning of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism, and Social Justice to inform our DEI strategic goals. This culminated in the development of a DEIAJ framework for the SOE, which was voted on and formally adopted in December 2022. It is serving as the basis for all subsequent DEIAJ work in the SOE.

Doctoral alumni expressed concerns regarding the need for “a robust curriculum that affirms the wisdom and contribution of people of color to educational justice and social movements in this country and globally.”

Short Term: An audit of the current doctoral curriculum including syllabi, texts, and projects in an effort to make adjustments as needed for Fall Semester 2020.

Responses:

1. Summer 2020: The SOE Doctoral Program developed, with the LMU graduate school, a set of standards and an aligned rubric for curriculum review and revision that includes a focus on issues of racial injustice, equity, and inclusion. This was used to conduct an audit of syllabi, texts, and projects in an effort to make adjustments as needed for Fall Semester 2020. Similar efforts will begin across all programs as a part of the Equity Audit.
2. The SOE has developed a recommended statement for all SOE course syllabi focused on anti-Black racism. All academic programs have begun to integrate this statement and to adapt course content to ensure this topic is addressed in ways appropriate to the crisis of Anti-Black racism in our society.
3. Spring 2022: A diverse national external review committee conducted an extensive review of the doctoral program’s syllabi, texts, projects, practices, resources, and faculty to provide guidance for strengthening the program. In fall 2022, a committee was launched to begin the process of redesigning and enhancing the Doctoral program.
4. Fall 2020 to present: The new DAC was tasked with planning and launching an SOE Equity Audit as part of the University’s Institutional Review process. This task involved a review of SOE policies and practices related to faculty, staff, and student hiring, admission, recruitment, review and retention, professional learning, curricular reform, program development, and recognitions to identify problems related to inequity, systemic forms of inequity, and oppression (particularly racial inequity and oppression). The outcome of this Equity Audit inform interventions, measures of progress, and accountability. Dr. Will Perez began leading this process in Spring 2021 and presented preliminary findings to the University community in Fall 2021.
5. Fall 2020 to present: The SOE included an objective in its strategic plan focused on engaging in regular equity audits of its policies, procedures, and practices. Specifically, Goal One of the LMU SOE Strategic Plan reads as follows:

Priority Goal One:  The School of Education will support its mission and vision by integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout SOE programs, practices, and partnerships.

Objective 1.1: All SOE programs, practices, and partnerships will reflect the SOE's commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and social justice.

Objective 1.2: The SOE will increase the diversity of its faculty, staff, and student populations, thereby contributing to LMU's desire to increase the diversity of its students, faculty, and staff.

Objective 1.3: The SOE will audit and revise all programs' curriculum to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Objective 1.4: The SOE will become the first SOE in the country to offer a Seal of Biliteracy and/or Bicultural Badge through all of its programs.

Alignment to University Plan: The objectives that fall under the SOE’s Priority Goal One, align most closely to the University’s Spotlight Initiative One. 

Long Term: Engage the Doctoral Alumni Board on how to address broader issues of racial diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Doctoral Program.

Response:

1. Spring 2023: Representatives of the Doctoral Alumni Organization will be invited to review and provide insight into curricular revisions underway for the SOE Doctoral program. 

Doctoral alumni expressed concerns regarding the need for “transparent demographic data on Doctoral Program student recruitment, application, and acceptance.” Additionally, the alumni expressed concerns regarding “disparities in the ways that students of color, and in particular Black students, receive funding for conferences and tuition assistance from the SOE” and “the lack of access to nationwide doctoral student organizations.”

Short Term: Demographic data be compiled and provided for review for the past five years on the student applicants and students accepted into the Doctoral Program.

Responses: 

1. An anonymized data report was requested and received from the director of the doctoral program, reflecting demographic data from the past five years.  The data have been compiled, and the director of the Doctoral Program is reviewing the data and this request with the Doctoral Committee. 

Long Term: Based on the student recruitment, applications, and acceptance demographic data, examine and adjust SOE’s current recruitment and application procedures and requirements to ensure that they don’t perpetuate biases and institutional racism. This process should be led by a committee of faculty, alumni, and current students.

Responses:

1. Spring 2022: A diverse national external review committee conducted an extensive review of the doctoral program’s syllabi, texts, projects, practices, resources, and faculty to provide guidance for strengthening the program—including the recruitment process. A committee was launched in Fall 2022 to begin the redesign and enhancement of the Doctoral Program. 
2. Fall 2020 to present: The SOE included an objective in its strategic plan focused on diversifying the student body. Specifically, Goal One of the LMU SOE Strategic Plan reads as follows:

Priority Goal One:  The School of Education will support its mission and vision by integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout SOE programs, practices, and partnerships.

Objective 1.1: All SOE programs, practices, and partnerships will reflect the SOE's commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and social justice.

Objective 1.2: The SOE will increase the diversity of its faculty, staff, and student populations, thereby contributing to LMU's desire to increase the diversity of its students, faculty, and staff.

Objective 1.3: The SOE will audit and revise all programs' curriculum to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Objective 1.4: The SOE will become the first SOE in the country to offer a Seal of Biliteracy and/or Bicultural Badge through all of its programs.

Alignment to University Plan: The objectives that fall under the SOE’s Priority Goal One, align most closely to the University’s Spotlight Initiative One. 

Additional actions taken to address student recruitment, diversity, and support:

1. Fall 2020: Dean Young and Professor Parham, then interim director of the Doctoral Program, established the Black Doctoral Student Scholarship with initial financial contributions.
2. Fall 2020 to present: SOE has recommended two new doctoral students each year for the Barbara L. Jackson Scholars Program of the University Council of Educational Administration (UCEA), and has provided financial support for their travel to UCEA’s annual conference. 
3. Summer 2022: Dr. Linda Tillman, founding director of UCEA’s Barbara L. Jackson Scholars Program, and Dr. Antonio Felix established a formal LMU SOE initiative for mentoring and supporting Barbara L. Jackson Scholars from LMU.
4. Summer 2022: Dean Young established the DACA Doctoral Student Scholarship, which supports a DACA student with $15,000 in funding spread over the course of the 3-year program. 

Doctoral alumni expressed concerns regarding the need for “Black adjuncts, tenure-track, and tenured faculty as well as the lack of other faculty of color that reflect the lived experiences of the greater Los Angeles community, or the community at large,” and  students’ lack of “access to Black faculty to serve on their dissertation committees.”

Short Term: SOE should conduct internal and external searches to add at least two Black faculty members prior to the start of the Spring 2021 semester.

Responses:

Due to budgetary constraints, this request could not be accommodated prior to the Spring 2021 semester, but the following actions have been taken:

1. Fall 2020: The Doctoral Program was changed from a department-based program to a school-wide one, which changed the way faculty are hired in the SOE. All faculty serving in the doctoral program now have a departmental home, and an appointment to teach in the doctoral program. This change provides an opportunity for faculty across all SOE programs to contribute to the doctoral program.
2. Fall 2020 to Summer 2021: Dean Young and Associate Dean Will Perez led recruitment efforts for a number of Black scholars with expertise in leadership for social justice. Despite persistent efforts, this undertaking did not result in a permanent hire.
3. Fall 2021: Dr. Linda Tillman joined the LMU SOE Doctoral program as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty member. Dr. Tillman, a Black woman, is a nationally renowned DEI scholar with expertise in leading for antiracism and social justice, mentoring students and faculty of color, and qualitative research. In addition to teaching in the doctoral program, Dr. Tillman worked with the director of the Doctoral Program to support a program review, to expose doctoral students to a diverse group of nationally recognized scholars of social justice, and to support SOE’s DEI cluster hiring efforts for the doctoral program.
4. Fall 2021 to Spring 2023: SOE recruited and hired eight full-time faculty. Four of the new hires are Tenure-line faculty (Maia Hoskin, Christopher Cormier, Kenzo Sung, and Dolores Delgado Bernal) while four are term faculty (Keisha Chin Goosby, Karen Hawkins, Dawn Richards, and Linda Tillman). Seven of these eight new faculty members are scholars of color, and five of them are Black/African American or Mixed Race. A current search is underway for an additional scholar focused on leadership for social justice. For a summary of SOE's faculty demographics from our 2022 Impact Report, visit https://soe.lmu.edu/about/ourimpact/2022/#btn.

Short Term: In the current absence of Black faculty, SOE should enact a temporary option that addresses student concerns to utilize the current alumni as guest lecturers within specific classes in the doctoral program.

Responses:

1. In addition to hiring Dr. Linda Tillman in Fall 2021 (see #3 above), SOE program directors made concerted efforts to attract Black part-time faculty members to teach, guest lecture, and participate in brown bag events for the doctoral program, including but not limited to: Ed Dardin, Jason Rudolph, Darin Earley, Sonya Horsford, Anjale Welton, and Tyrone Howard.
2. Spring 2023 to 2024: The SOE will be engaging in further review of its part-time faculty hiring practices. 

Long Term: SOE should review current policies and practices that contribute to the lack of Black faculty and a plan with measurable outcomes to increase Black adjunct and tenure-track faculty.

Responses:

1. Fall 2020 to present: SOE made concerted efforts were made to attract Black part-time faculty members to teach, guest lecture, and participate in brown bag events for the doctoral program, including but not limited to: Ed Dardin, Jason Rudolph, Darin Earley, Sonya Horsford, Anjale Welton, and Tyrone Howard.
2. Spring 2021 to present: While he was Associate Dean of DEI, Dr. Will Perez began the work of reviewing current University and School level policies and practices that contribute to the current diversity of the SOE full and part-time faculty, including those faculty affiliated with the doctoral program. He also began tracking the increasing diversity of SOE's full-time faculty since fall 2020. See #4 above for more specifics, and visit https://soe.lmu.edu/about/ourimpact/2022/#btn for up-to-date information on SOE's faculty demographics listed in our 2022 Impact Report.
3. Spring 2023 to 2024: The SOE will be engaging in further review of its part-time faculty hiring practices. 
4. Fall 2020 to present: The SOE included an objective in its strategic plan focused on engaging in regular equity audits of its policies, procedures, and practices. Specifically, Goal One of the LMU SOE Strategic Plan reads as follows:

Priority Goal One:  The School of Education will support its mission and vision by integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout SOE programs, practices, and partnerships.

Objective 1.1: All SOE programs, practices, and partnerships will reflect the SOE's commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and social justice.

Objective 1.2: The SOE will increase the diversity of its faculty, staff, and student populations, thereby contributing to LMU's desire to increase the diversity of its students, faculty, and staff.

Objective 1.3: The SOE will audit and revise all programs' curricula to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Objective 1.4: The SOE will become the first SOE in the country to offer a Seal of Biliteracy and/or Bicultural Badge through all of its programs.

Alignment to University Plan: The objectives that fall under the SOE’s Priority Goal One, align most closely to the University’s Spotlight Initiative One.  

Long Term: SOE should include members of the Doctoral Alumni Board and select alumni in the hiring and selection process.

Response:

1. At LMU, the faculty hiring and selection process is dictated by the Faculty Handbook, which does not allow for the participation of alumni on search committees. However, members of the Doctoral Alumni committee are always welcome to attend candidate open forums.

Other actions taken by SOE's DAC to support faculty diversity:

1. Fall 2020 to present: The SOE has played an ongoing role in the work of the larger university, a record of which can be viewed at the following website: https://resources.lmu.edu/dei/resources/demands/blackatlmustudentdemands/. To receive alerts when this website is updated, please sign up here. 
2. The DAC analyzes multiple sources of information on the experiences of Black students, staff, and faculty, with priority being given to the experiences of Black graduate students and alumni. Taken together with data gathered from a survey of SOE students, the DAC and SOE Leadership will push out a communication on the key priorities, commitments, and longer-term Equity Audit process.
3. Ongoing: The DAC is working toward a roadmap to implement in SOE for lasting impact.
4. Spring 2023 to present: DAC Co-Chairs will engage with the leaders of similar committees in other schools, colleges, and university units to ensure efforts are aligned across the university, share lessons learned, and learn from one another’s efforts. 
5. Spring 2023 to present: DAC Co-Chairs are willing to assist in forwarding communications regarding attempts to build community and updates from student representatives to Department Chairs and Program Directors and to support efforts to include this information in SOE and University Newsletters.