The ICRE is committed to upholding our teaching mission by ensuring that diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are pervasive throughout our curriculum. As a way to ensure transparency and accountability, we will state our intentions for improvement or change, provide information about the actions we are taking, and publish the results of those actions here
Course Evaluation Metrics
Through a collaborative effort in Fall 2020, the ICRE added three questions to our course evaluations to get a window into students’ perspectives of the level of diversity and inclusion in our courses.
We commit to having 90% of our courses receive a rating of "agree or strongly agree" to questions 1 and 2, and to use the responses to question 3 to guide faculty continuing education. These results will be reported in January and July of each year beginning in 2021.
Course Evaluation Questions
- The instructor of this course showed respect for cultural and personal differences across all students.
- The instructor worked to incorporate learning materials that are inclusive of racial, gender, ethnic and/or other differences. Please consider all aspects of the course, for example: readings, images, examples, cases.
- How might the class be made more equitable and inclusive of all students?
Questions 1 and 2 are measured using the Likert Scale and question 3 is free response.

JANUARY 2021 (Baseline)
Semester: Fall 2020
Number of classes evaluated: 21
215 students answered the first question. Ninety-five percent agreed or strongly agreed that the instructor showed respect for cultural and personal differences across all students.
204 people answered the second question. Eighty-nine percent agreed or strongly agreed agree that the instructor worked to incorporate learning materials that are inclusive of racial, gender, ethnic and/or other differences.
JULY 2021
Semester: Spring 2021
Number of classes evaluated: 22
182 students answered the first question. Ninety-eight percent agreed or strongly agreed that the instructor showed respect for cultural and personal differences across all students.
171 people answered the second question. Ninety-one percent agreed or strongly agreed agree that the instructor worked to incorporate learning materials that are inclusive of racial, gender, ethnic and/or other differences.
JANUARY 2022
Semester: Fall 2021
Number of classes evaluated: 23
218 students answered the first question. Ninety-nine percent agreed or strongly agreed that the instructor showed respect for cultural and personal differences across all students.
210 people answered the second question. Ninety-seven percent agreed or strongly agreed agree that the instructor worked to incorporate learning materials that are inclusive of racial, gender, ethnic and/or other differences.

Continuing education for faculty
The ICRE presents continuing education opportunities designed to increase faculty awareness of issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. We plan to track attendance at these opportunities and strive to increase attendance by 5 people or 5% annually, whichever is greater, and collect data from participants on how the presentations changed their perceptions or behaviors.
- White Privilege in Information: October 1, 2020
- Dialogue for Difficult Subjects: November 4, 2021
- Racial Equity Consciousness Institute: November-December, 2022
ICRE faculty are eligible to have their syllabi individually reviewed by specialists at Pitt’s Teaching and Learning Center.
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Assessment
The ICRE is undertaking a self-assessment to gauge its current position as a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just institute and to create a plan to guide improvements.
In April 2022, a Task Force was appointed to review, amend, and adopt a rubric designed to determine the current state of the ICRE and to recommend items to be targeted for action. Our goal is to have our work completed by August 1, 2022, however, we anticipate our review will be a recurring process that will promote continuous improvement.
The ultimate goal of the task force is to provide sustained attention to the ICRE climate and to develop outcomes by which we may hold ourselves accountable.
Rubric Dimensions
- Philosophy and Mission
- Faculty Support
- Curriculum
- Staff Support
- Student Support
- Administrative Leadership