Committee on Diversity Affairs
Mission:
The Committee on Diversity Affairs (CODA) is a student and faculty initiative that was created at Indiana University-Bloomington (IUB) to foster a commitment and responsibility to prepare future school psychologists to serve our nation's students and families in a pluralistic society. In order to best serve our student communities we advocate for an emphasis to develop professionally strong candidates knowledgeable and prepared through their training at IUB to serve their student communities as advocates, interventionists, consultants and ultimately change agents of their school environments. In conjunction with the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) we support the development of competencies that prepare our school psychology students to understand the implications of,
" … individual differences, abilities, and disabilities and of the potential influence of biological, social, cultural, experiential, socioeconomic, gender-related, and linguistic factors in development and learning." (2.5 NASP).
As a group we also acknowledge the complexity of the definition of diversity and will work to be inclusive of the multiple meanings underlying diversity issues. We advocate for the development of a professional understanding (in the field of education, mental health, and school psychology) of different issues within the broad definition of diversity, including, but not limited to sexual orientation, culture, race, ethnicity, religion/beliefs, SES, gender, language, physical disabilities, and social/emotional disabilities.
Founders:
Several students contributed to the development of this committee working to plan and develop these objectives and initiatives, thanks are issued to the members of that student group:
Heather Edl, Karega Rausch, Jason Cuadrado, Rose Jackson, Roseanne Chien, Ahsley Gibb, Amy Bartleson, Lauren Benner, Drew Heckman, Bryn Harris, and Becky Pérez
Committee Objectives and Initiatives:
I. Intradepartmental collaboration among students: To strengthen communication in department to foster dialogue about diversity issues both as students and professionals
Faculty Representative: Dr. Rebecca Martínez
Student Representative: Drew Heckman
Initiatives for Objective I
- The creation of a SASP position that would link CODA to SASP and to faculty meetings. The person would attend faculty meetings, sit on the CODA committee, and report back to SASP. Actually, communication would take place all around
- Invite all school psychology students to participate in membership of organization
II. Capacity-building: Create opportunities for students and faculty to foster cultural competency, social justice and advocacy training in school psychology program
Faculty Representative: Dr. Jack Cummings (*website dev) and Dr. Scott Bellini
Student Representative: Jason Cuardado, Becky Pérez
Intern Representative: Anne Trotter and Heather Edl
Initiatives for Objective II
- Assess needs of students in school psychology program
- Create a website to collect and distribute resources on various topics
- Maintain students aware of training opportunities conferences, workshops, etc. through SASP/CODA liaison Create anonymous message board where individuals can submit questions
- Develop long-term connections with alumni to seek resources and opportunities
- Create professional development workshops to offer students opportunities to explore their rights as school psychologists
- Compiling list of courses that students in department can take to strengthen their knowledge of diversity issues in education and other related fields
III. Training and Program Development: Work to diversify program and incorporate issues on diversity to develop skills for research and practice
Faculty Representative: Dr. Tom Huberty and Dr. Russ Skiba (*recruitment)
Student Representative: Karega Rausch and Becky Pérez
Initiatives for Objective III
- Recruitment initiatives to diversify program student body
- Discuss with faculty ways to incorporate topics for serving diverse students and families across all coursework
- Facilitate student-faculty collaboration by creating committee with at least one faculty representative to brainstorm ideas, and create implementation plan and timeline
IV. Interdisciplinary collaboration: To develop a working relationship and commitment with faculty members from school psychology and other neighboring departments to address diversity issues
Faculty Representative: Dr. Russ Skiba (*as resource*)
Student Representative: Ashley Gibb and Rose Jackson
Initiatives for Objective IV
- Invite other faculty and staff to attend CODA meetings monthly or bi-monthly.
- Fostering interdepartmental relationships to develop conversations and opportunities to learn about diversity issues
- Through professional development opportunities or team-taught workshops for students in training
- Creation of research or practicum opportunities in conjunction with other disciplines
- School psychology representation on school of education department committee
Recommended Websites: