Affirmative action program university of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, Massachusetts

To help address issues of access, the Apprenticeship Program in the Physical Plant was reinstituted in FY2000. The Apprenticeship Program provides opportunities for advancement in the trades to traditionally under-represented populations as well as current employees seeking to improve their skills and promotional potential. The DigSafe apprentice is in the 2^nd year of the apprenticeship. The Apprentice Program attempted to fill an apprenticeship for a Utility Plant Operator – Electrician for high voltage during the winter of 2012; however, the program was not successful in its recruitment efforts and the position currently remains empty.

Often, diversity related problems involve supervisory relationships. The Administration and Finance executive area has made it an expectation of performance that all of its supervisory staff attend some level of supervisory training offered through the Supervisory Leadership Development Program. This six series program focuses on four competency areas: Managing Self, Managing Others, Managing the Work, and Managing the System. Included in these competencies are the knowledge and skills required to be an effective manager in a multicultural workplace. One of the stated goals of this program is to increase supervisory expertise in diversity and multiculturalism.

In response to campus need for more training opportunities, the Office of Equal Opportunity & Diversity has expanded the number and variety of educational workshops and trainings it provides to the campus community to assist in combating sexual harassment (including sexual assault), discrimination and retaliation. The following types of workshops/trainings are provided: diversity training, new employee training, complaint handler training, individualized training, search procedures training, sexual harassment prevention training, and harassment/discrimination prevention training. Workshops can be tailored for specific audience needs or workplace area; separate trainings can be provided for supervisors. The series of Diversity Matters workshops includes: Preventing Sexual Harassment; Responding to Complaints; and Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. Since 2012, Harassment Prevention Training has been a mandatory workshop for new faculty and staff.
AFFIRMATIVE INITIATIVES:

PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE PROBLEMS & ATTAIN GOALS
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing an opportunity to increase the employment of qualified persons from protected racial and ethnic groups, women, persons with disabilities, and protected veterans. The following programs and procedures help to illustrate the campus' commitment in this area.
Hiring Procedures
One of the ways that the campus seeks to provide opportunity is through its active monitoring of the search process. The Equal Opportunity and Diversity Office (EO&D) reviews recruitment plans and advises search committees and hiring authorities on matters related to affirmative action and equal opportunity. Guidelines on how to incorporate affirmative action principles into the search process are included in the campus’ Search Procedures: Faculty and Professional Staff; this document is distributed to all hiring authorities, and is also available on the EO&D Web site (http://www.umass.edu/eod). These procedures outline recruitment activity for selecting qualified individuals for administrative, faculty and professional/non-faculty (exempt) positions at the University. One of the goals of these procedures is to train hiring officials to identify the EO&D Office staff as technical assistants and not as regulators in recruiting activity. The recruitment strategy stresses interaction between the EO&D Office, the hiring official, and the search committee at the beginning of the recruitment process in order to better insure creative and effective announcement of the position vacancy, as a means to generate a more diverse pool of qualified applicants.

As outlined in the document Search Procedures: Faculty & Professional Staff, notice to the EO&D Office is required if the pool of qualified, bona fide applicants does not approximate availability and the hiring unit or campus is underrepresented with respect to protected group members. After considering what steps may be taken to address the underrepresentation identified in the pool of qualified applicants, the hiring official or designee may accept the pool, identify additional activities to improve the pool, or may close the search. It is anticipated that such monitoring by the hiring official (or designee) of the diversity of the applicant pool will encourage more attention to the importance of widespread, creative recruitment.

In 2012, the President’s Office signed a contract with InsideHigherEd.com, an electronic publication that provides news, opinion, and job postings for a higher education audience. The contract provides the Amherst campus with unlimited job posting capabilities, enables the campus to link each of its postings to a Featured Employer Profile and a Diversity Profile, and gives the campus access to the site’s credentials bank. It is anticipated that the features that are included in the contract will assist the Amherst campus with its efforts to attract diverse candidates and to recruit dual-career couples.

The university has recently updated its applicant tracking system. In early 2013, at the conclusion of a competitive RFP process from companies who were interested in providing the University of Massachusetts with a system-wide electronic recruiting solution, the University of Massachusetts System Office entered into a system-wide contract with Interview Exchange (http://www.interviewexchange.com/), a Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud based on-line applicant tracking system (ATS). The Amherst campus began its multi-phase implementation process of the Interview Exchange applicant tracking system on September 13, 2013, by requiring hiring departments to post all vacant faculty and staff positions on the UMass Interview Exchange website and by asking all candidates to apply for positions through the UMass Interview Exchange website.

The Interview Exchange ATS provides a feature rich platform for posting positions and linking postings to many prominent online recruitment sources; for communicating with applicants and managing applicant flow and information; and for maintaining compliance with federal, state, and UMass System regulations, including EEOC and OFCCP reporting requirements.  

As part of the Interview Exchange application process, all applicants are given an opportunity to voluntarily answer questions identifying their sex, ethnicity, race, protected veteran status, and disability status. Candidate responses can only be accessed by users who have been assigned a Super Administrator or AA/EEO user account. The percentage of applicants who volunteer some protected status information has increased since the implementation of Interview Exchange.

In 1981, the Amherst campus and the four unions for classified (non-exempt) employees (AFSCME, USA/MTA/NEA, IBPO [A and B Units]) entered into contractual agreements which allowed for some deviation from the otherwise negotiated procedure for hiring and promoting employees. Under the contractual agreements, vacancies where protected categories are underrepresented in the job group can be targeted for special recruitment efforts. The targeting process has been included in collective bargaining agreements since its inception in 1981.

The targeting process begins when the EO&D Office, upon receiving notification of the vacancy, determines that the vacancy is in an underutilized job group according to the Affirmative Action Plan. The EO&D Office initiates the targeting process by sending a memorandum, which designates the position as an Affirmative Action Target Position, to the originating department, along with a copy to the Labor Relations Administrator and the bargaining unit involved. The hiring authority is informed by the Employment Office on the specific procedures to follow in filling the targeted position. The purpose of the targeting process is to ensure that, in accordance with contractual agreements, qualified women and minority candidates receive full consideration for positions that fall within job groups that have been determined to be underutilized.

During Academic Year 2012-13, 54 new tenure system faculty members were hired. Of these, 34 (63.0%) were women, and 18 (33.3%) were members of a racial/ethnic minority group; this included 1 American Indian/Alaskan Native, 2 African American/Blacks, 1 Hispanic/Latino, and 14 of Asian heritage. Over the last decade, out of a total of 576 tenure system faculty hires, 268 (46.5%) were women, and 181 (31.4%) were members of a racial/ethnic minority group.

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  The Mellon Mutual Mentoring Team Grant Program: Team Grants support faculty-driven, context-sensitive projects based at the departmental, school/college, interdisciplinary, or inter-institutional levels. The most successful faculty mentoring projects originate at the faculty ranks and are carried out by teams that conceive and implement their own project plans.
  
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  The Mellon Mutual Mentoring Micro Grant Program: Micro Grants are individual mentoring grants that are intended to encourage pre-tenure faculty to identify desirable areas for professional growth and opportunity, and to develop the necessary mentoring partnerships to make such changes possible.
  

In 2010, the UMass Center for Public Policy and Administration was awarded $40,000 by the UMass President’s creative Economy Initiative to help create a center dedicated to alleviating poverty and inequality in Springfield and other western Massachusetts cities. The Springfield Initiative provides a bridge between university research and resources and city residents working to make their lives and communities better. Its focus is on strategies to improve the lives of marginalized communities as an integral part of improving the prosperity of cities and regions. This program will bring together faculty and students on campus interested in working on areas of educational inequity in the Springfield Public Schools.

In 2012, the campus was awarded a five year, nearly $1.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to reestablish an Upward Bound program in partnership with two high schools in Springfield. A new director was hired, and under this grant, UMass Amherst will work with up to 60 students at the High School of Commerce and Springfield High School.

In Spring 2014, the University of Massachusetts opened a welcome center at its new downtown satellite center in Tower Square. The UMass Center at Springfield is the first satellite center for the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. UMass Amherst, located about 25 miles from Springfield, is the lead campus for the satellite center, with other UMass campuses also providing academic programs. The UMass Center at Springfield will complement UMass Amherst’s active involvement in the Springfield area, where faculty and staff are engaged in more than 120 programs in health, fine arts and the creative economy, natural sciences, engineering, green industries, management, sports and education.

Our Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures manual was originally adopted in 1982. In 2001, the Sexual Harassment Procedures were modified to facilitate a more efficient process for handling complaints. Although the policy has remained the same, the following are a few notable changes in our procedures:

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   Complaint Handlers are trained to receive sexual harassment complaints, advise regarding options, fact find, resolve informal complaints, report complaints to EO&D and do appropriate follow-up to ensure non-retaliation. Department Heads and Chairs, Managers, Directors, Deans, Vice Chancellors and all administrators with line authority are designated Complaint Handlers.
   
2. 
   The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity maintains a current list of the Support and Referral contacts, who offer advice concerning options for confronting sexual harassment, make referrals, do follow-up and provide support during the complaint resolution process. The names of the Support and Referral contacts are included in the EO&D Sexual Harassment brochure which is on its website: www.umass.edu/eod.
   

The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity offers sexual harassment prevention workshops to departments upon request. This past year, EO&D continued with trainings on sexual harassment for area managers, assistant managers, supervisors, and employees. The training focused on what is sexual harassment (including sexual assault), what is the law concerning sexual harassment, what to do if someone is being sexually harassed or accused of sexual harassment and how to address a problem dealing with sexual harassment. On an on-going basis, the EO&D office provides sexual harassment/discrimination training for new employees, employees that have not taken the training in a while, and other employees who want to get updated on the laws relating to sexual harassment. Workshops can be tailored for specific audience needs or workplace area; separate trainings can be provided for supervisors. The series of workshops includes: Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Responding to Complaints, and Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. Since 2012, Sexual Harassment Prevention Training has been a mandatory workshop for new faulty and staff.

The Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures is available on the Equal Opportunity and Diversity website (www.umass.edu/eod). The Office of Equal Opportunity & Diversity has developed a sexual harassment brochure that has been distributed campus wide, and is also available on the EO&D website. Sexual harassment brochures are periodically distributed to deans, directors, department heads and chairpersons.

The Title IX Coordination Team meets weekly to discuss concerns dealing with Title IX, including ensuring that Title IX training is provided to students, staff and faculty. Currently the representatives on the Title IX Coordination Team include the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, the Center for Women and Community, the Dean of Students Office, the Center for Student Development, Department of Athletics, the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health, International Programs, Residential Life and the UMass Amherst Police Department (UMPD). Please refer to Appendix I: UMass Amherst Title IX Comprehensive Resources List.

Workplace Learning and Development (WLD) staff offerings include programs featuring diversity, inclusion and respectful workplace issues. During FY14, over 40 contact hours of customized training in the areas of diversity and inclusion were delivered to 110 participants and an additional 8 contact hours of respectful workplace training were delivered to 57 participants. WLD hosts the Harassment workshops conducted by the Office of Equal Opportunity & Diversity for all new employees. 112 staff from across campus participated in trainings, such as Respectful Workplace, Diversity in the Workplace, and Multicultural Customer Service.

LMWE launched an innovative pre-apprenticeship training program, called Community Works, targeted to marginalized and underserved communities in Springfield and Holyoke.  Community Works is a 6 week adult workforce training program offered in Springfield and Holyoke to prepare qualified applicants for an apprenticeship in the building trades, the pathway to a rewarding career in construction. Through Career Readiness and Occupational Skills Training, with classroom and hands on learning experiences, Community Works provides the knowledge and skills needed to apply for and enter into a state registered Building Trades apprenticeship program. Coordinated case management and placement services are also provided to help participants achieve their career goals.  The University of Massachusetts Amherst Labor-Management Workplace Education program and its partners, which include labor unions and MGM Resorts International, have received $262,250 in state grant money to fund the project for another four years. During FY14, LMWE delivered two highly successful pre-apprenticeship programs (one in Springfield and one in Holyoke) geared towards women and minorities.  36 learners were people of color and 8 were women.

The programming offered by the campus’ Labor/Management Workplace Education program (LMWE) brings together labor and management to address workplace issues such as diversity, civility, bullying, conflict, respect, and classism via workshops and courses geared primarily to a non-exempt workforce. LMWE offered six semester long Workplace English courses for employees and integrated those classes with tutors from the University’s Community and Civic Engagement Program. Labor/Management Workplace Education played an integral role in the highly collaborative campus effort to address issues of workplace bullying. Staff from LMWE served on the campus Committee on Workplace Climate and Bullying and chaired the Committee’s subcommittee on Education which made educational recommendations to the full committee, and cumulated in the campus wide Symposium and Kick-off workshop.