Faculty and Staff Resources
DEI Educational Resources
For faculty and staff seeking to improve, learn, and participate in Furman’s ongoing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, Furman has several resources, including in-person and online workshops, inclusive technology, grants, and people to contact.
Table of Contents
- Faculty Development Center (FDC)
- Departmental DEI Representatives
- Accessibility (SOAR)
- Faculty and Staff Affinity Groups
- CREATE Conversations
- Bias Incident Response and Report
- Whom Should I Contact for DEI Assistance?
Faculty Development Center (FDC)
There are many ways to teach well—and all teaching can be improved. Rethinking your pedagogy for equity and inclusion can support a rich learning environment that draws on the assets of all learners. Each of our pedagogically-focused professional growth opportunities incorporate DEI elements to enhance your teaching and students’ learning. Please see our website for more information about opportunities in multiple formats: asynchronous learning via Learning By Design studio recordings, workshops, conversations via our Talking Teaching series, reading groups, and Summer Pro Courses and Institutes. Though DEI is infused throughout our faculty resources, see our Accessibility and Inclusion Resources for explicitly tailored resources.
Accessibility (SOAR)
The mission of the Student Office for Accessibility Resources is to create an accessible, inclusive, sustainable learning environment, where disability is recognized as an aspect of diversity that is integral to the campus community and to society. Our primary objective is to provide equal access to campus programs and activities for all students. Faculty and Staff can access the full range of available resources here. Resources include:
Target Audience: Any faculty or staff member who is interested in learning how to use the Ally plug-in for Moodle to review the accessibility level of their course and use Ally’s step-by-step guidance to remedy accessibility issues. Ally is currently an opt-in feature for Moodle but will be enabled for all Furman Moodle courses in the future.
Session Objective: Users will learn how to understand Ally’s accessibility rating for Moodle activities and resources. Users will work through the process of fixing accessibility issues in a document using Ally’s guidance. Finally, users will look at some of the alternative formats Ally automatically provides for students, formats the instructor may find beneficial as well.
Target Audience: Any faculty or staff member who creates PowerPoint slides for general distribution.
Session Objective: This 1-hour training will introduce participants to the basics of accessibility in Microsoft PowerPoint.
Target Audience: Any faculty or staff member who creates Word documents for general distribution.
Session Objective: This 1-hour training will introduce participants to the basics of document accessibility in Microsoft Word.
By the end of the training, the participant will be able to:
- Add headers that allow for navigation
- Position and add alternative text to images
- Create accessible tables
- Properly insert hyperlinks and lists
- Run the built-in accessibility checker
- Create a PDF that will maintain the accessibility features
Target Audience: Any faculty or staff member who creates video content for general distribution.
Session Objective: Practice using YouTube to add and save captions to existing video content and learn about low-cost options for third party captioning. A discussion of the pros and cons of alternative and automatic methods sometimes used for captioning will also help participants better understand captioning best practices.
Target Audience: Any members of the Furman community
Session Objective: This 1.5 hour session will consist of a brief overview of disability history, discuss various models of disability, define ableism, and discuss appropriate use of language.
Target Audience: Any members of the Furman community
Session Objective: This 1-hour session will report on disability as a part of diversity, review results of Furman students’ assessment if disability culture and discuss ableism in our classrooms and programs
Target Audience: Anyone who has students with ASD in their groups, programs or classrooms.
Session Objective: In this 1-hour session, participants will learn about the features of Autism Spectrum Disorder and learn some techniques to assist with planning and managing groups and activities.
SOAR also has several on demand training modules available on our website. A few examples:
CREATE Conversations
Conversation-Rich Education for Anti-Racist Teaching/Learning Environments conversations provide opportunities for faculty and staff to dialogue on issues of race, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Furman facilitators lead 75-minute conversations with interested faculty or staff groups on any of the following topics. Furman CREATE facilitators can customize conversations to the needs of the group. To schedule a conversation for your team and learn about other facilitated conversations, contact Robyn Andrews.
Words matter, and generating shared understandings is one of the cornerstones of a healthy classroom and campus climate. In this introductory session, colleagues will consider some key concepts that are the basis of Anti-Racist advocacy.
In this conversation participants will delve into considering equity, how it may relate to identity and privilege, and consider how we may address equity gaps within our spheres of influence.
Sense of belonging and mattering are key predictors in student and colleague success and retention. We can support an inclusive climate when we understand impact vs. intent, employ empathetic active listening, and diffuse micro-aggressions. In this conversation, we will discuss case studies to guide development of potential action plans for how to be an anti-racist ally.
University classrooms offer unique spaces for exploring topics with people who hold different, even conflicting, perspectives. Good facilitation does not require that you have expertise on all topics. Instead, focus on developing skills to identify and manage sensitive topics, cognitive dissonance, and emotionally charged conversations. This session will help with strategies to prepare for challenging conversations before they occur, to navigate difficult moments during these conversations, and to recuperate after challenging conversations.
The objective of this conversation is to examine the insidious ways implicit biases and microaggressions show up in workplaces, how to interrogate such behavior and messages it sends in increasingly diverse settings.
Whom Should I Contact for DEI Assistance?
Need help and not quite sure where to go? Faculty and staff can reach out to:
The Presidential Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and its subcommittees meet regularly. The dedicated faculty and staff members are eager to help colleagues access and develop DEI resources and programs. See here for a list of the DEI Presidential Committee subcommittees and current members.
Robyn Andrews
Franklin Ellis
Cynthia King
Lisa Knight
Departmental DEI Representatives
Each academic department at Furman has two DEI representatives, who serve as resources for their faculty colleagues, facilitate biannual DEI Workshops within their department, and help promote inclusive cultures within their department.
| Art | Sarah Archino | Kylie Fisher |
| Music | Randall Umstead | Stacy Christofakis |
| Theatre Arts | Maegan Azar | Alan Bryson |
| Anthropology | Lisa Knight | Kaniqua Robinson |
| Asian Studies | Lisa Knight | Alex Francis-Ratte/Andrew Womack |
| Classics | Randall Childree | Chiara Palladino |
| Communication Studies | John McArthur | Mai Xiong-Gum |
| English | Melinda Menzer | Michele Spietz |
| History | Lane Harris | Tugce Kayaal |
| Modern Languages & Literatures | Linda Bartlett | Carole Salmon |
| Philosophy | Erik Anderson | David Gandolfo |
| Religion | Tim Wardle | Tori Montrose |
| WGSS | Savita Nair | Nader Hakim |
| Biology | Greg Lewis | Ashley Morris |
| Chemistry | Tim Hanks | Mac Gilliland |
| Computer Sciences | Kevin Treu | Chris Alvin |
| Earth, Environmental & Sustainability Sciences | Suresh Muthukrishnan | Geoffrey Habron |
| Health Sciences | Natalie The | Shaniece Criss |
| Mathematics | Tom Lewis | Sarah Frick |
| Physics | David Moffett | Dake Wang |
| Business/Accounting | Sandy Roberson | Jeanine Stratton |
| Economics | Jason Jones | Ken Peterson |
| Education | Nelly Hecker | Shameera Virani |
| Library | Caroline Mills | Robyn Andrews |
| Politics & International Affairs | Glen Halva-Neubauer | Kate Kaup |
| Psychology | Erin Hahn | Veronica Flores |
| Sociology | Ken Kolb | Joe Merry |
The Furman Black Faculty and Staff Association seeks to support all self-identified employees at Furman, as well as our students and graduates. For further information or to express ideas, issues or concerns, please contact Geoffrey Habron.
Furman’s LGBT+ faculty and staff represent a supportive community that celebrates the diversity of sexuality and gender expression found throughout campus. They encourage and embrace opportunities to create a more welcoming and affirming environment for all faculty, staff, and students. For further information, please contact Scott Henderson or Katlyn Bagley-Sepsey.
Bias Incident Response and Report
Furman University emphasizes the worth of all people. Acts that violate this core value will not be tolerated. Accordingly, Furman has implemented a Bias Incident Response & Support (BIRS) plan that is managed by the BIRS Team. The BIRS team addresses bias incidents occurring within the University community that involve students, staff, faculty, alumni, and visitors to campus.
Students, staff, faculty and visitors to campus who perceive that they have experienced a bias incident, as well as those who are witnesses to a bias incident, are urged to complete a Bias Incident Report.