Dr. Melissa Fiori
NARRATIVES ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
Preparation
NARRATIVES ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION:
Student Voices, Staff Voices, Faculty Voices
To: Students, Faculty, and Staff
Re: Narratives on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on Colleges Campuses in the USA
From: Dr. Melissa Fiori, Associate Professor, Daemen College, mfiori@daemen.edu
Date: Fall 2019
You are receiving this email because you are being invited to take part in a study
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education: Student Voices, Faculty Voices, Staff Voices.
I am seeking participants who are willing to tell their stories as a potential way to raise awareness of unconsious bias on college campuses in the United States.
Participants should be students, or staff, or faculty of college campuses who have experienced prejudice (direct, indirect) or discrimination (intentional, unintentional) verbally or non-verbally through acts such as insults, invalidations, or assaults on the basis of their race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religious practices, physical or cognitive disability, or the language/s they speak.
The objectives are:
1/ To examine the experiences of students, faculty, and staff who have experienced microaggressions in institutions of higher education as so that these stories may be heard and validated.
2/ To use the data collected to develop materials aimed at: validating participants’ experiences, raising the awareness of the perpetrators of unconscious bias inside institutions of higher education, and gaining insight through the narratives of the victims on the impact that unconscious bias creates in terms of campus climate, the nature of the curriculum, campus programs, institutional policies and practices.
Taking part in this study is entirely voluntary. We urge you to discuss any question about this study with Dr. Melissa Fiori, mfiori@daemen.edu, before deciding whether or not you with to participate. If you are interested in participating, please click on the link to the research site that will bring you to the study materials and provide you with an informed consent document designed to give you information to help you decide whether or not you’d like to participate.
If you know someone who might be interested, please share this email with them and direct them to the research site.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Dr. Melissa L. Fiori (she, her)
Department of Modern Languages
Second Language Acquisition & Applied Linguistics
4380 Main St. Daemen College
Box 69, Office DS 149 & 151
Amherst, NY 14226
You are being offered the opportunity to take part in this study as a volunteer.
The objectives are:
1/ To examine the experiences of students, faculty, and staff who have experienced microaggressions in institutions of higher education as so that these stories may be heard and validated.
2/ To use the data collected to develop materials aimed at: validating participants’ experiences, raising the awareness of the perpetrators of unconscious bias inside institutions of higher education, and gaining insight through the narratives of the victims on the impact that unconscious bias creates in terms of campus climate, the nature of the curriculum, campus programs, institutional policies and practices.
If you agree to participate after reading this consent document:
• You will be asked a few details about your experience with microaggressions and discrimination.
• You will be asked to provide a detailed account of your experience “your story” while avoiding identifying information about yourself, the perpetrator, or the university/college where it took place.
STORY GUIDELINES:
Stories should be true accounts of discrimination that you experienced personally, on or off campus, in person or online, but must associate with the college where you were studying/working/teaching.
Topics include issues of race & ethnicity, LGBTQ+, language discrimination, gender identification, physical disability, learning disability, religion, other. Participants are asked to write about one topic only, per submission. If you wish to contribute more than one story you may do so by participating again.
It is important that the participants not include identifying information regarding the perpetrator or the victim. Stories should not identify specific individuals. For example, you can refer to the perpetrator as a classmate, a colleague, or coworker but may not name names. Similarly, please do not identify the college/university itself, but rather may describe it (small private college, large state school) or share its geographic location [North East, South East, South West, Midwest, West].
Participants will be asked to narrate in the first person (I, we), include a title, beginning/middle, end, and strive for between 250 and 1,200 words.
• Additionally, you will be asked to answer two additional questions related to the story you share:
1/An intervention or action that would have made me feel safe / protected / heard / understood/ supported at the time the even took place would have been…
2/ My suggestion/s for addressing the concerns my story presents (interms of campus climate, the nature of the curriculum, campus programs, institutional policies and practices) is/are…
• At the end of the survey you will be provided with contact information and relevant directions if you wish to be included in an optional documentary regarding your experiences.
DAEMEN COLLEGE
Title of Project: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education: Student Voices, Faculty Voices, Staff Voices
Principal Investigator: Dr. Melissa Fiori, Associate Professor, Daemen College, mfiori@daemen.edu
1. PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH
You are being offered the opportunity to take part in this study as a volunteer.
The objectives are:
1/ To examine the experiences of students, faculty, and staff who have experienced microaggressions in institutions of higher education as so that these stories may be heard and validated.
2/ To use the data collected to develop materials aimed at: validating participants’ experiences, raising the awareness of the perpetrators of unconscious bias inside institutions of higher education, and gaining insight through the narratives of the victims on the impact that unconscious bias creates in terms of campus climate, the nature of the curriculum, campus programs, institutional policies and practices.
2. PROCEDURES
If you agree to participate after reading this consent document:
• You will be asked a few details about your experience with microaggressions and discrimination.
• You will be asked to provide a detailed account of your experience “your story” while avoiding identifying information about yourself, the perpetrator, or the university/college where it took place.
STORY GUIDELINES:
Stories should be true accounts of discrimination that you experienced personally, on or off campus, in person or online, but must associate with the college where you were studying/working/teaching.
Topics include issues of race & ethnicity, LGBTQ+, language discrimination, gender identification, physical disability, learning disability, religion, other. Participants are asked to write about one topic only, per submission. If you wish to contribute more than one story you may do so by participating again.
It is important that the participants not include identifying information regarding the perpetrator or the victim. Stories should not identify specific individuals. For example, you can refer to the perpetrator as a classmate, a colleague, or coworker but may not name names. Similarly, please do not identify the college/university itself, but rather may describe it (small private college, large state school) or share its geographic location [North East, South East, South West, Midwest, West].
Participants will be asked to narrate in the first person (I, we), include a title, beginning/middle, end, and strive for between 250 and 1,200 words.
• Additionally, you will be asked to answer two additional questions related to the story you share:
1/An intervention or action that would have made me feel safe / protected / heard / understood/ supported at the time the even took place would have been…
2/ My suggestion/s for addressing the concerns my story presents (interms of campus climate, the nature of the curriculum, campus programs, institutional policies and practices) is/are…
• At the end of the survey you will be provided with contact information and relevant directions if you wish to be included in an optional documentary regarding your experiences.
3. TIME DURATON OF THE PROCEDURES AND STUDY
If you agree to take part in this study, your participation is expected to take no longer than 5 minutes to compete the general information and 20 minutes to complete the “story”. However, given the nature of the study, the timeframe is expected ty vary by participant and make some people more time and others less time.
4. DISCOMFORTS AND RISKS
The study is not expected to pose risk to participants beyond that which is experienced during everyday life. However, during the study you may experience an emotional or physiological or psychological response from sharing your story of discrimination, but the probability and magnitude of the possible discomfort is not greater than that which is experienced in daily life. If participants de feel discomfort and would like to speak with someone they should contact https://www.opencounseling.com/hotlines-us. Additionally, there is the small risk that participants could be indirectly identified based on their stories, depending on the details they provide. However, participants should not provide any identifying information about the individuals involved in the story or the college/university, and any identifying information will be removed by the researcher prior to any publication of participant responses, and raw data will remain confidential. For additional protections, participants should close their browser and/or refresh their own history upon submitting the survey.
5. POTENTIAL BENEFITS
You will not benefit directly from taking part in this study. However, the results of this research may serve the broader community in terms of helping to address the unconscious biases present on college campuses, and in turn help to guide consideration of the practices, policies, programs, curricula, and climates at institutions of higher education in the United States in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Excerpts, quotes, partial, or full narratives may be published as a result of volunteering contributions.
6. STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY
Data is collected anonymously and there will be no attempts to link your data with your identity, and your raw data will remain confidential. However, the principal investigator may publish the stories that you choose to provide and their titles either in whole or in part. Additionally, the principal investigator will exclude or deidentify responses that provide identifying information of any individual or institution.
7. COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
You will not receive any compensation for your participation in this study.
8. VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION
Taking part in this study is completely voluntary. You do not have to participate If you choose to take part, you may skip any questions you may wish and may discontinue your participation at any time without penalty. However, once the form is submitted there is no way to withdraw participation as no identifying information is collected with the submission. If you decide not to participate, simply exit the site or do no answer the survey items.
9. CONTACT INFORMATION FOR QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS
You have the right to ask any questions you may have about this research. If you have questions, complaints, or concerns you may contact the principal investigator, Dr. Melissa Fiori at mfiori@daemen.edu. If you have questions regarding your rights as a research participant or you have concerns or general questions about the study, you may also contact the Human Subjects Research Review Committee:
Daemen College, 4380 Main St. Amherst, NY 14226
* hsrrc.chair@daemen.edu
(716-839-8477
: http://www.daemen.edu/academics/research/human-subjects-research-review