(157) Determination of Programming Priorities for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at an Urban Private Pharmacy School

Objective : To determine diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics to prioritize for college-wide programming at an urban private college of pharmacy with a racially and ethnically diverse student body (75%) and faculty/staff (53%).

Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed to the student body (n=384) and faculty/staff (n=49), containing nine DEI topics with definitions and instructions to rank the topics in order of priority (#1=highest) for college-wide programming.

Results: Respondents included 113 (29.4%) students and 29 (59.2%) faculty/staff. Based on mean rankings, the student body (sb) and faculty/staff (fs) prioritized the DEI topics in the following order: cultural & ethnic diversity (#1-sb, #2-fs); racial equity & diversity (#2-sb, #4-fs); age & generational diversity (#3-sb, #1-fs); gender & sexual orientation & LGBTQIA (#4-sb, #5-fs); Implicit bias (#5-sb, #3-fs); disability diversity (#6-sb, #6-fs); micro & macro aggressions (#7-sb, #8-fs); intentional inclusion & inclusion training (#8-sb, #7-fs); religion diversity (#9-sb, #9-fs). Two areas, cultural & ethnic diversity and age & generational diversity, were ranked among the top three by both groups and were identified as the initial programming priorities for the college, followed by racial equity & diversity, gender & sexual orientation & LGBTQIA, and implicit bias, which comprised the next three highest rankings by both groups. The remaining topics were ordered similarly for both groups and are a potential source for future programming after the higher priorities are addressed.

Conclusions: To focus DEI educational efforts on the areas of most need, student and faculty/staff views on the prioritization of DEI topics should be assessed and commonalities used to inform college-wide DEI programming decisions.