J-750 Student Equity

The Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS), the Wisconsin Technical College District Boards Association, and the leadership of all 16 technical colleges have committed to five (5) specific efforts to create greater diversity, equity, and inclusion.

SUSTAINED CONVERSATIONS ON SYSTEMIC RACISM AND POLICY REFORM

The WTCS will support facilitated, sustained space for conversation and policy work on the impact and dismantling of systemic racism, starting internally at each college and the WTCS. While each college must initiate and implement this work, the WTCS will look for ways to support the colleges with facilitation and other resources. For the WTCS, this work will build upon ongoing conversations on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

FOCUS ON EQUITY IN STUDENT ACCESS AND SUCCESS

The WTCS will comprehensively evaluate policies and practices in instruction, student services, and professional development through an equity lens to identify unconscious biases, modify them to enhance empathetic understanding and build emotional intelligence skills and capacity. WTCS will provide facilitation and other resources supporting colleges’ evaluation efforts. These evaluations will begin with WTCS law enforcement and correctional service programs but will be undertaken across all instructional areas.

USE DATA TO CLOSE EQUITY GAPS

The WTCS will leverage data and research findings to inform college efforts to close equity gaps in student access and outcomes. This work will build upon the action research agenda of the WTCS Student Success Center and may be supported, in part, by Perkins and General Purpose Revenue (GPR) grant resources.

REVIEW HIRING AND RETENTION POLICIES

The WTCS will identify and take intentional steps to diversify our workforce, including addressing cultural and community issues of equity and inclusion. This work will be led by the Presidents Association’s special task force on Workforce Diversity. It will incorporate data from existing WTCS research, including the WTCS System-wide Equity Report, which may be supported in part by Perkins Reserve Capacity Building grant and GPR Professional Development grant resources.

INCREASE TRANSPARENCY

The WTCS will establish clearer, more transparent, and more frequent communication regarding WTCS equity and inclusion initiatives and outcomes. The WTCS will lead this work with college support. This initiative will create a public-facing central messaging hub to share WTCS assessment, research, and outcomes data from the Student Success Center and other diversity, equity, and inclusion resources.

We stand with black citizens who are hurting badly. We stand with diverse communities who, with loved ones and supporters, raise their voices in justified anguish and anger. We stand with our law enforcement faculty, Students, and graduates who chose a law enforcement career for the right reasons and risked their safety to protect and serve Wisconsin communities. We stand firmly against racism, discrimination, oppression, and exclusion of all types. And we stand against damage to property, livelihoods, and communities by a disconnected few.

The WTCS is committed to creating safe spaces to support our Students and colleagues who are suffering; training future law enforcement officers who are prepared to do an increasingly complex, demanding job with compassion, courage, and humanity; delivering educational pathways to economic opportunity for all; and raising our collective voices to oppose injustice in all its forms. Together, we have the power to create a more inclusive and equitable society for each other and the future.

The College is committed to this initiative in both respect and in demonstration of student equity.

The Student Equity Plan shall be developed, maintained, and updated under the supervision of the campus-wide IDEA Committee (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access).