Bias Education Response Team Data

Manhattanville Bias Education Response Team (BERT) Data

2019-2021

Overview

In 2019, a reporting system and Responding to Bias website was designed and launched to provide the campus community a way to report bias and discrimination incidents within our campus community. The reporting system and subsequent reports of bias and/or discrimination have been managed/responded to by The Bias Education Response Team (BERT).

Below is a summarization of the work of BERT during the 2019-2021 academic years and includes: number of reports, outcome of the findings, outreach efforts from BERT, and recommendations for the campus community to consider.

2019-2021 Bias Education Response Team Data

Click here to view the entire 2019-2021 Bias Education Response Team Data report.

Reports and Outcomes

The data contained below refers to reports submitted via the Bias-Related On Line Incident Reporting System and emails to a BERT member. The reporting system has only been in use for two years. The following data is broken down by academic year; which is data collected from August to July.

Academic Year 2019-2020

Academic Year 2019 – 2020	Reporter	Respondent	Type of Bias	Setting/Location	Outcome
10/2019	Undergraduate Student	Faculty	Other	Office	No further contact directive and Educational Programming
11/2019	Undergraduate Student	Faculty	Race	Classroom	Informational Conversation
Total Number of Reports	2

Academic Year 2020-2021

Academic Year 2020 – 2021	Reporter	Respondent	Type of Bias	Setting/Location	Outcome
9/2020	Undergraduate Student	Faculty	Race	Classroom	Mediated conversation with student, faculty and BERT member
9/2020	Undergraduate Student	Staff	Other	Dammann Field	Referred to Student Conduct
9/2020	Undergraduate	Faculty	Other	Course Material	Ended due to lack of student involvement in process
10/2020	Undergraduate Student	Faculty & Staff	Disability	Classroom	Trainings on Supporting Students w/ Disabilities Recommend grade appeal File an accommodations grievance
2/2021	Faculty	Faculty	Race	Selection Committee	Conversation amongst both faculty
4/2021	Undergraduate Student	Undergraduate Students	Disability	Campus	Not Determined Meeting w/ Student Health & Counseling Mediated conversation with students involved
4/2021	Undergraduate Students	Faculty	Race	Classroom	Reading and discussion of publication with Chief Diversity Officer Discussion on creating an inclusive classroom Apology letter to the reporters
Total Number of Reports	7

Cases by Type of Bias

Race/Ethnicity	4
Age
Disability	2
National Origin
Religion/Creed
LGBTQ Identity
Retaliation
*Other	3

*Other- refers to incidents where there is no clear motive of bias

Outreach Efforts

Over the past two years, the Bias-Related Incident Reporting System and emails to BERT members have allowed members of our community a formal venue for submitting reports. Through this system, we have been able to respond, support, and provide resources to students and members of our community in a timely fashion.

Regular updates and recommendation regarding bias-related incident reports were given to the Chief Diversity Officer/Vice President of Student Affairs and the Provost.

We will continue to raise awareness about Bias-related reporting mechanism for students, faculty and staff. By continuing to meet with student groups (i.e. RAs, Student Government, SAC, Commuter Council); present to Faculty Council and President’s Council; tabling in Brownson Hall and Cafeteria; sending emails to the campus community; update website with information and resources for our community members

Members of the Bias Education Response Team (BERT) will continue to sit on the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Council

Work with Dean of School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) to create a statement of BERT for faculty to include on their syllabus.

Recommendations

Recommendations that have been made to the Chief Diversity Officer/Vice President of Student Affairs and Provost are the following:

1. The Center for Inclusion, Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Taskforce, and the Center for Student Accommodations to work with campus partners on reducing the stigma around Albinism, the visually impaired and students with disabilities,
2. Training for members of BERT,
3. Training for faculty on how to create an inclusive classroom and providing context of content to students,
4. Creating better communication about processes (i.e. selection committees) and policies to the campus community.

Use of the reporting system continues to increase, but the overall number of reported incidents is low. We encourage all community members to report any bias-related incidents and allow for BERT to further explore.

Updated August 2021