Anti-Racism at SIUE

Campus Community,

Thank you for your continued participation in our diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism efforts. The level of engagement, support and feedback received during Wednesday’s Diversity and Inclusion Summit positively reinforced the shared desire of numerous campus community members to enact change for the betterment of the University and its faculty, staff and students.

The theme for this year’s summit was, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Recruitment and Retention of Black Students Through an Anti-Deficit Lens.” During the Summit, we outlined the University’s Quality Initiative (QI), explained its alignment with our vision to become an anti-racist institution, and its significance as part of our reaccreditation process with the Higher Learning Commission. We also gained important insights from our Center of Predictive Analytics Director Dr. Carrie Butts-Wilmsmeyer in her presentation of “Current Trends in Retention and Opportunities for Successful Intervention.”

A couple of primary takeaways from that presentation:

• Black/African American students comprise our second largest cohort on campus. Data indicates that freshman to sophomore year retention rates and six-year graduation rates for our Black/African American students are considerably lower than the overall rate or in comparison to some sub-groups. With intentionality, SIUE reached its highest overall retention rate for the Fall 2018 cohort (returning Fall 2019) at 79% and saw two-year increases prior to COVID-19 of approximately 10 percentage points for Black students (reaching 70%). Those improvements provide a foundation upon which we can improve. Nevertheless, there is considerable work to do to address equity and close the gaps. Improving first-to-second year retention is critical to improving graduation rates for Black students.
• Campus wide, high school GPA is the most important predictor of success, followed by level of unmet need. However, data shows that for our Black/African American male students, unmet need is more important than GPA. Furthermore, social connection, specifically participation in at least one of SOAR and GAME, are incredibly important for these students. For Black/African American female students, on-campus housing during the first year is an important factor; unmet need and GPA were also important predictors of success, as was participation in at least one of FAME and SOAR. Overall, data shows being able to form that connection with the campus community is of utmost importance in retaining and graduating our Black/African American students.

We thank Dr. Butts-Wilmsmeyer and the Office of Enrollment Management for their incredible work in analyzing University data and sharing it, so that we are all aware and consider the roles we each play in improving the retention and graduation rates of our Black students. Thank you to the Summit Planning Committee for their dedicated efforts in coordinating this annual event. And, thank you to Associate Provost Dr. Elza Ibroscheva for her work on the QI.

A more complete summary of the event is available via this SIUE News story. Also, we encourage you to view this recording of the Summit and the important information that was shared. 

We hope that the QI will mark the beginning of a monumental shift in our institutional culture from deficit-mindedness to equity mindedness. We cannot continue to place the responsibility for unrealized success solely on students. We must take personal and institutional responsibility for the success of our students, call out the bias and systemic racism that we know exists and have a disparate impact on student outcomes, and critically reassess our practices and policies.

Opportunities for growth in knowledge and awareness related to diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism abound at SIUE. We benefit from an abundance of educational resources across campus. Please watch The E Today and Announce Listserv to learn about upcoming DEIA training, programs and events. As we move closer to the official launch of our QI, your input and participation are welcomed and appreciated.

Sincerely,

Randy Pembrook, Chancellor   
Denise Cobb, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs   

Jessica Harris, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Rachel Stack, Vice Chancellor for Advancement   
Morris Taylor, Vice Chancellor for Administration 
Jeffrey Waple, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs