Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity and Diversity Programs
To reaffirm MIT's commitment to providing equal opportunity in the workplace and enhancing the diversity of our workforce, vice president Laura Avakian created the Staff Diversity, Affirmative Action, and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Management Team in the Human Resources Department. The new team consists of Wendy Williams, director of staffing services; Robert Martinez, recruiting specialist; and Philip Lima, newly-appointed coordinator of staff diversity initiatives. This Diversity Management Team will act as MIT's central resource on issues of workplace affirmative action and equal employment opportunity. The team will assist supervisors in their affirmative action and diversity management responsibilities, including the hiring, retention, and advancement of underrepresented minorities and women. In addition, the team will assist employees who have concerns about workplace equal opportunity or who need assistance addressing workplace diversity-related issues.
The team will work closely with the executive vice president John Curry and Ms. Avakian on the creation of a Council on Staff Diversity. An analog to the Council on Faculty Diversity, the new council will be major forum for identifying, sharing, and implementing effective affirmative action and diversity management programs and practices as they relate to staff members across the Institute.
The Diversity Management Team will sponsor a thorough review of the Serious Search Process used to identify women and minority candidates for administrative, research, and other staff positions. The team will solicit input to identify current issues and concerns, and create a community-based working group to review current processes and make recommendations for changes. WebHire, the new applicant tracking system, will be an important tool in this process. WebHire data will make it possible to measure efficiently and cost-effectively efforts at broadening the diversity of MIT's applicant pools. The Diversity Management Team expects that the review will result in a strengthened commitment to the Serious Search Process.
The Diversity Management Team also will review the process used to collect, analyze, and report data needed to prepare the Institute's annual affirmative action plan report. The team will investigate ways to streamline this process, ensure the accuracy of data reported to schools and departments, and enhance the usability of the report as a tool supervisors can employ in their affirmative action and diversity management activities.
More information about Affirmative Action, Equal Employment Opportunity and Staff Diversity can be found on the web at http://web.mit.edu/aa/.