The importance of collaborative partnerships across the institution, especially between chief diversity officers (CDOs) and chief financial officers (CFOs), was among the topics of conversation during a recent two-day, equity and inclusion retreat for diversity leaders in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
Across 37 institutions and 54 campuses, facilitating opportunities for leaders to collectively think about and work to meet the educational needs of more than 375,000 students is essential, system leaders said.
“Culturally responsive support, orientation, faculty development is a part of the conversation,” said Dr. Clyde Wilson Pickett, Jr., chief diversity officer of the system. “And making sure that we provide intentional ways for CDOs to have ongoing relationships with CFOs.”
These opportunities can be in the form of cabinet meetings, Pickett added, but also other spaces that encourage frequent partnerships or discussions including on committees, in broad institutional forums or in meetings on strategic and budgeting processes.
During the retreat, CDOs from institutions in the system heard from the Minnesota system chancellor Dr. Devinder Malhotra, several presidents of campuses, and the vice chancellor for finance, who spoke about how campus CDOs can make a pitch to resource their work.
“There has to be an intentional investment in equity and inclusion,” Pickett said, adding that CDOs and CFOs should be working together to examine how to intentionally and equitably fund support for ever-changing student populations and fund strategic outreach efforts to ensure that students continue to be attracted to their campuses.
Such collaboration helps to reveal the interconnectedness of the work of both CFOs and CDOs, Pickett said, and how diversity and inclusion goals in the form of retaining students and faculty ties into CFO goals of managing revenue streams for the institution.
