Diversity and Inclusion Plan

In an effort to promote diversity and inclusion in the School of Theatre and Dance, a task force of faculty and students was formed in the summer of 2020 to actively seek equitable representation in our academic unit and creates a more holistic and fully representative narrative in our degree programs, our productions and community engagement. The committee created the action plan below, a working document that will continue to grow and change as the committee and SoTD as a whole continue to address and raise awareness about issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion within the department. 

School of Theatre and Dance Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and Friends:

As members of the SoTD Diversity and Inclusion Action Committee, we would like to share our plan for action as we move forward to prioritize systemic change regarding an anti-racist dance and theatre community. Our artforms, experiences, community, and humanity advance when we include a wide variety of diverse perspectives, talents, and people. We are all enriched when everyone has a seat at the table, a voice in the conversation, and feels free to bring their authentic selves to the work. We commit to identifying and dismantling systemic racism in our school and our industry. This includes endeavoring to create a safe, accepting, and equitable teaching and learning environment and a programmatic series that expands the visibility of underrepresented choreographers, playwrights, directors, educators, performers, and design and production offerings. We would like to apologize for and acknowledge any racist and supremacist attitudes our SoTD community has experienced during their time at ECU and commit to changing for the future.

Action Plan:

• Provide staff and faculty with anti-racist and diversity training: SoTD staff and faculty will be provided with and encouraged to participate in general and discipline specific anti-racist and diversity training in order to face personal bias and unacknowledged privilege with the goal toward creating a more inclusive environment for all students, staff and faculty.
• Commit to creating a more diverse faculty: In hiring and promotion, SoTD will advertise and seek diverse candidate pools for full-time positions. As SoTD builds a more diverse faculty, guest artists will be prioritized to supplement the offerings of the current faculty, so the curriculum and performance experience is more inclusive. Additionally, the search committees and promotion and tenure committees will be responsible for recruiting, mentoring, honoring, and promoting diverse faculty members to ensure that underrepresented faculty can attain and remain in positions of authority.
• Amplify underrepresented voices: This includes developing opportunities and experiences to elevate and amplify the voices of BIPOC leaders within the theatre and dance communities and create additional access to those networks for our students. This includes conscientious casting that avoids tokenism and stereotyping.
• Prioritize curricular changes: We, as the School of Theatre and Dance, value anti-racist and anti-discriminatory pedagogy and aim to encourage our instructors to diversify and decolonize our curricular and programmatic offerings by placing less of a priority on the Western canon as the foundation of theatre and dance. This includes evaluating syllabi and examining the curriculum with a lens that amplifies underrepresented voices.
• Improve student recruitment and marketing efforts: Make the audition experience more inclusive for underrepresented populations. The SoTD Recruitment Committee will work to develop a free on-line learning series and provide resources to help prospective and current students prepare for auditions and interviews. These sessions will focus primarily on underrepresented groups from high schools that lack sufficient instruction in theatre or dance. These training videos will assist students with access and preparation to be successful in the audition process. We will also work to remove economic barriers for inclusion.
• Develop a Student Diversity and Inclusion Action Committee: The charge of this committee is to address the inequities that exist within SoTD and craft an action plan in conjunction with the Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Action Committee to create a more inclusive experience for underrepresented students within the program. This will include procedures for students to express ideas, concerns, and suggestions for handling issues when they arise in a consistent manner. The student committee will be available to the students of the SoTD so that all voices can be heard and positive changes can be implemented.
• Alumni Outreach: We will engage with alumni who are willing to share their experiences. We will also collaborate with them on ideas for acknowledging and addressing these past occurrences and for creating positive changes to our SoTD culture.

It is with humility and professional care that we move forward into the next phase of the School of Theatre and Dance. This will serve as a living document with the intention that changes may be made over time to improve access to diverse perspectives in the content that we present to wider audiences and within our classes. This includes equitable hiring, casting, and auditioning and continually working toward a more inclusive environment, particularly for those in the global majority.

Sincerely,
Jill Matarelli Carlson, Professor of Theatre
Teal Darkenwald, Associate Professor of Dance
On behalf of the SoTD Diversity and Inclusion Action Committee

We acknowledge the Tuscarora people, who are the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and live, and recognize their continuing connection to the land, water, and air that Greenville consumes. We pay respect to eight recognized tribes; Coharie, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin, Occaneechi Band of Saponi, Sappony, and Waccamaw-Siouan, all Nations, and their elders past, present, and emerging.