The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion works to promote and further the College's commitment to diversity, inclusion, social justice, and belonging. As part of our work, we support the recruitment, hiring, and retention of faculty and staff; as well as serving as internal consultants, trainers, and resources to the Holy Cross Community. Working towards this goal, the Office has compiled a menu of trainings offered to the Holy Cross Community, all of which may be customized to a particular area of focus or through a particular lens.
If you are interested in holding one of these sessions for your team, department, division, or program please reach out to Cullen Mulrooney, Associate Director for Diversity Education (cmulroon@holycross.edu) for more information and scheduling. Additionally please give our team at least two weeks notice prior to the date you would like to schedule the training.
Inclusive Hiring
Workshop Level 101
60mins
*Required for all search committees on a yearly basis
Geared toward individuals that will be serving on search committees or will be involved at any stage of the hiring process. This training will open with an overview of what inclusive hiring is, as well as common types of biases that appear throughout the hiring process. We break down the entire life cycle of your specific hiring process through an inclusive and equitable lens. From creating the initial job description to making an offer, participants will explore how bias manifests at each stage, and provide tangible strategies to mitigate its effects.
Outcomes:
1) Define how unconscious bias manifests during the hiring process
2) Analyze job descriptions through an inclusive and equitable lens
3) Recognize how to expand your sourcing practices
4) Express how to inclusively assess your candidate pool via resume review, interviewing, and negotiating
Understanding Bias & Mitigating its Effects
Workshop Level 101
60-90mins
Implicit bias is a cognitive process and refers to unconscious attitudes, reactions, stereotypes, and categories that affect behavior and understanding. This workshop explains what implicit bias is and helps to recognize manifestations of implicit bias and its harmful consequences. While being mindful of biases is a step in recognizing and mitigating the harmful impacts they cause, mindfulness alone is not enough to undo the harm of implicit bias. Participants will understand how coming into awareness of bias is the first step in the process of dismantling systemic bias, of undoing the harm both personally and institutionally. In small groups, participants will discuss where they witness bias on campus; share strategies for how to address it both personally and institutionally; and what they would like to see their institution do to address bias within their community.
Outcomes:
1) Individuals increase their understanding of what bias is and how it manifests in each of us, within campus, and within our social groups
2) Individuals are provided with a baseline of vocabulary specific to implicit bias
3) Individuals are provided with resources to push their program, department, or division to continue moving towards transformational change
Understanding Identity & Microagressions
Workshop Level 101
60-90mins
This workshop explores social identities and bias and their impact on society. This workshop introduces the various identities that are present in society, defines them, and includes a small group activity to discuss and break-down the privilege and disadvantages associated with some identities. The activity allows for individuals to reflect on their own privilege and how intersectionality plays an important role. The workshop also focuses on how biases can lead to microaggressions. Microaggressions are defined and tips for responding to them are given. Participants will be asked to reflect on and answer discussion questions based on example scenarios in which some common microaggressions are highlighted.
Outcomes:
1) Individuals increase their understanding of identities and how some identities give us an advantage leading to disparities in society
2) Individuals increase their understanding of what bias is and how it manifests in each of us, within the workplace, and within our institutions
3) Individuals increase their understanding of what microaggressions are and how implicit bias plays a role in its manifestation in each of us, within the workplace, and within our institutions
4) Individuals who experience microaggressions and bias are empowered and learn how to and when to respond
Understanding Gender & Sexual Identities
Workshop Level 101
60-90mins
The LGBTQ+ community is a growing population that has been negatively impacted by lack of education and understanding by the general public. This workshop seeks to address the missing education in order to better understand and become accepting of this community. This workshop provides an introduction to the various gender and sexual identity terms, an understanding of the difference between gender and sexuality, the importance of using the correct pronouns in conversations and documents, and recognizing manifestations of bias in regard to gender and sexual identities and its harmful consequences. This is approximately a 90-minute workshop that is interactive and provides exercises to practice using gender neutral pronouns, as well as videos and tips/recommendations, to break the harmful stereotypes that the public has historically held. This workshop can be modified to address specific concerns within the workplace environment, as well as within an educational setting. This workshop is targeted for an adult audience; however an alternate version has been tailored for children and teens.
Outcomes:
1) Individuals increase their understanding of what gender and sexual identities are
2) Individuals are provided with a baseline of vocabulary specific to gender and sexuality
3) Individuals are provided with resources to push their workplaces/educational settings to continue moving towards transformational change
Navigating Difficult Conversations
Workshop Level 102
60-90mins
Having difficult conversations is a key aspect of working as a team, and yet it is often the most uncomfortable. We have a host of concerns that influence our decision about whether or not to engage in a difficult conversation, such as retaliation; damage to relationships; angering others; impacting morale; making others uncomfortable, or feeling incompetent. This interactive training focuses on learning how to have a difficult conversation in a way that builds relationships, acknowledges the interests or needs of others, as well as our own, and builds collaborative solutions that improve efficiencies, develops individuals and changes problematic behaviors.
Outcomes:
1) How to use empathy to minimize negative responses
2) The importance of strengthening relationships
3) How to bring a difficult conversation to a close
Facilitating Difficult Discussions
Workshop Level 200
60mins
Facilitation is core to all successful trainings, workshops, and programming. However, facilitating conversations can feel daunting, especially at first. What does it mean to facilitate? What are your goals as a facilitator? What should you pay attention to? These are the important questions that you will be taught to consider as you plan your first facilitation as well as the four objectives you should strive for at every facilitation session: full and equal participation, mutual understanding, inclusive and collaborative decision making, and shared responsibility. This training will walk you through the fundamentals of workshop facilitation with a particular focus on how to navigate disruptive personality types that you will regularly see as you begin your facilitation career. The goal is to increase the effectiveness of teams, meetings, workshops, and programs by increasing the quality of facilitation. This training prepares participants to design and facilitate effective remote, hybrid, and face-to-face meetings, trainings, programming, and teams.
Outcomes:
1) Develop skills to facilitate meetings or large groups
2) Build awareness of your own style and how you leverage it to cultivate an inclusive learning environment
3) Create conditions that deepen connection with others to increase participation, involvement, and growth
4) Explore how to effectively engage diverse groups with openness, curiosity, and compassion
Team Culture & Language
Workshop Level 101
60mins