A Strategic Action Plan offers the opportunity to identify best practices within various entities on campus and to share and promote those practices campus-wide toward a common goal.

From the past SOWRs’ recommendations, the members of CCW have chosen 10 high priority issues that have not been addressed systemically on the Boulder campus and that were perceived to be the most beneficial for improving the status of women on campus. These recommendations are to be developed into a campus-wide strategic action plan. The recommendations are:

1. Campus administrators should develop a campus action plan, with short and long-term goals, to address unresolved issues from past SOWRs, and to continue to monitor recommendations already systemically implemented.
2. Ensure that student women are safe
3. Ensure staff properly classified with respect to job duties
4. Conduct exit interviews
5. Create and implement mandatory diversity training
6. Create and implement procedures to evaluate & ensure equitable classroom climates
7. Provide administrative leave to allow for managerial training
8. Examine faculty, staff, and student body makeup vis-à-vis the State of Colorado demographics
9. Create a mentoring program for staff
10. Develop a tracking system to quantify recruitment & retention of women and minorities

A. Campus administrators should develop a campus action plan, with short and long-term goals, to address unresolved issues from past SOWRs, and to continue to monitor recommendations already systemically implemented.

• Hold a cross-division leadership meeting, reviewing CCW’s recommendations
  • Facilitate discussions by leaders with regard to recommendation status, implementation, and success in their particular divisions
• Divisions develop a short-term (<1 year) and long-term (< 5 years) strategic action plan
• Divisions submit SAPs, describing process implementation & monitoring; funding requirements; and personnel issues, to the Chancellor by the end of 2002
• Cross-division leaders assigns ownership of the resolutions of particular issues
• Determine metrics to assess sufficient implementation of the recommendations

B. Ensure that student women are safe

• Educate new students about safety issues in such a way that it will have a more lasting effect than orientation workshops
• Develop a continuous funding source to address completion of safety projects on campus, such as lighting and security access.
• Develop a campus safety website

C. Ensure staff are properly classified with respect to job duties

• Review all 2002 Performance Pay Program, Planning and Evaluation Forms, ensuring that cover sheets for “Current PDQ for this position was reviewed and is current and accurate” was initialed and dated by all supervisors as correct
• Review positions that have high turnover to ensure actual job duties match PDQ duties

D. Conduct exit interviews

• Perform exit interviews with all campus individuals who resign
• Analyze the content of the exit interviews, on a division basis, to determine patterns with regard to diversity-related issues
• Incorporate exit interview results into leadership performance standards. Causes for an individual’s resignation due to negative diversity-related issues should be duly noted in the leader’s performance evaluation.

E. Create and implement mandatory diversity training

• Require attendance of all campus faculty and staff
• Incorporate training into all campus orientations

F. Create and implement procedures to evaluate & ensure equitable classroom climates

• Review course evaluations survey structure to ensure there is no innate gender bias
• Increase faculty awareness of biases associated with gender in classroom environments
• Incorporate classroom behavioral expectations in freshman orientation

G. Provide administrative leave to allow for managerial training

• Require managers to develop training plans for their employees
• Review training history of individuals currently supervising individuals to ensure all have had some management training
• Instruct managers on the allowable uses of administrative leave from the Colorado Code of Regulations (CCR)

H. Examine faculty, staff, and student body makeup vis-à-vis the State of Colorado demographics

• Develop a program that will review and communicate State demographics
  • Utilize demographics review to ensure congruence between State and campus demographics

I. Create a mentoring program for staff

• Develop a campus template package for divisions to use to implement mentoring programs
• Develop a recognition system for successful, long-term mentoring programs
• Review mentoring programs for their role in retention and promotion of faculty and staff

J. Develop a tracking system to quantify recruitment and retention of women and minorities

• Develop a database system to track individuals by specific positions
• Link this tracking system with the campus recruitment programs and the exit interview program to integrate analysis of resignation into the hiring system

The suggestions put forth in the Strategic Action Plan detailed above are not exhaustive, but CCW proposes them as a way to incite and inspire leaders to action.