Diversity & Inclusion’s learning and development offerings are available to UNT students, faculty, staff, administrators and the external community. Our multiple formats – learning and development sessions and series, awareness workshops, identity-based team building, and dialogue-based programming, - are designed to meet your unit’s needs. Each request is followed by a consultation to develop a customized program, and extended assistance is available from our office to help operationalize inclusion and equity.

UNT employees who participate in trainings provided by Diversity & Inclusion will receive professional development credits through the Learning Management Portal maintained by UNT System Human Resources. These trainings provide an opportunity for employees to address the diversity and inclusion performance standards in the annual employee performance review.

Diversity & Inclusion also offers these customized learning and development services to organizations outside of UNT at cost and as a benefit for Equity & Diversity Conference sponsor partners. Consultation regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion program development and infrastructure is also available.

Diversity and Inclusion still offers LIVE Zoom-based training sessions! Interested in interactive, live training? Participate in any of our open enrollment trainings or submit a training request for your unit.

Please review the request process and expectations before submitting a training request form.

Mandatory Diversity and Inclusion Training Update

July 24, 2020

As UNT works on implementing its Action Plan for Improving Diversity and Inclusion on Campus, Diversity & Inclusion is working with each division Vice President to outline the minimum number of hours required for training and exactly which training courses will be most beneficial for the faculty and staff in a particular area. Additional customized trainings fulfilling the new diversity training requirement are available to individual units by request.

Diversity & Inclusion is recommending a mix of live in-person or virtual trainings, as well as a selection of available online trainings, for faculty and staff. A few things to note:

• Equal Opportunity training on discrimination and harassment is not Diversity & Inclusion training and will not count toward this training requirement.
• For employees who have discipline-based requirements, the individual also must fulfill the divisional requirements for that — unless explicitly waived by the Vice President after setting training requirements for their division.
• Faculty and staff will be required to complete the specified number of hours and trainings each Vice President mandates for their area, but also are more than welcome to complete any additional trainings offered by Diversity & Inclusion or through LinkedIn Learning.

Feedback from our training evaluations:

"A core value of the G. Brint Ryan College of Business is Community, demonstrated by an appreciation and inclusion of diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Diversity & Inclusion partnered with us to provide our faculty and staff with bias awareness training to improve our engagement with students and each other. With their guidance, we are making strides towards modeling the business case for diversity and intentional inclusion."

- Dr. Marilyn Wiley, G. Brint Ryan College of Business Dean

Overall

• Without your hard work I would have never posted on social media inviting people to ask me for resources about systemic racism and oppression. I pulled from both of you, Unlikely Allies, and IECB to find the strength to engage on social media. Thank you for giving me the words and resources to do this. I’ve had some amazing interactions with friends and acquaintances who are wanting to learn.
• Two presenters make it insightful and interesting.
• Shani and Teresita are engaging and energetic.
• Very engaging, topics were informative and explained comprehensively. Dialogue was facilitated encouragingly, allowing for honesty and open conversation.
• As always, I’m super impressed on how Shani can lead difficult trainings with grace knowing that not everyone is receptive to these ideas and answers questions open-mindedly and intelligently. Fantastic job!
• Excellent training. Shani was informative, funny, and helpful and provided an avenue for me to think about changes that can be made by myself and in my work environment.
• Interactive and informative.
• I appreciate your style, delivery, and openness! Very informative and beneficial!
• Very informative and reflective in nature, enjoyed exercises and really allowed me to look inward in a different manner.
• Love that it’s a safe and brave space. Was clear that it’s okay to mess up.
• A very friendly, welcoming, and helpful environment.
• This microaggression and inclusive language class was great. I feel that everyone should take this course.
• This was a great training. Three hours and I didn’t sleep. Very interesting!
• I really like that the training took into account that diversity does not equal “non-white.” Also I thought the training was very open and inclusive without going into extremes.
• Wish we had more time for these trainings. Everyone would benefit.

Supervisory Building Blocks

• I really enjoyed this because it made me more aware of what I need to do to improve myself!
• This was my favorite SBB course. Will definitely recommend this course to others in my department.
• Upper administrators in leadership positions should take this class. They really need this information.
• Very much enjoyed the class. Knowledge is power and this was a great training that really makes one reflect on themselves!
• Shani is awesome! Her passion for the subject shows through her enthusiasm for the course and encourages others to be enthusiastic.
• This is one of the best trainings I have ever been to. Thank you.
• Enjoyed the practical application.

Departmental Trainings

Athletics

• After this, I feel more aware of my privilege.
• As a new employee, first day on the job, i appreciate this session; it was a great welcoming meeting. I learned new things about the staff here at UNT and I am even more excited to work here.
• I was not looking forward to this session but it was very engaging and informative and I enjoyed the presentation and being forced to think about important issues.
• Both facilitators were awesome - engaging and knowledgeable. I look forward to seeing this training result in more diversity in Athletics employees in the Athletic Complex (currently mostly white males).
• Thank you for making what could be an uncomfortable topic so conversational and easy to share.
• Great job managing a heavy topic and allowing us to unpack it in layers.
• A main point I would try to put towards coaches is that if they believe they do not have a gay athlete, they are doing their athletes a disservice.
• Thank you! A lot of what was presented was new news to me that I was unaware was going on.

Psychology Students

• Loved the idea of how to internalize in an integrated manner. It gave me confidence to be OK about who I am and dare to advocate for others and incorporate humility.
• I absolutely enjoyed and learned from this experience. It added more to my knowledge. It created an environment of cultural humility and provided me opportunity to be better than I am today.
• I loved the experiential/interactive stories.
• I appreciated the interactive exercises and the facilitator was incredibly engaging and welcoming!

College of Business

• Great interactive workshop. Honestly could be a day-long training to better unpack.
• I really enjoyed the activities throughout the presentation. They kept me engaged with the material.
• Great instructor; encouraged participation.
• Really enjoyed Shani's energy and approach to the topics which can be uncomfortable. Thank you!
• Shani did an excellent job of communicating the information and allowing group discussion.
• The facilitator is excellent and very, very energetic. She is very well-informed; knows her job!
• I came in with low expectations but this was worthwhile. Facilitator was excellent.

Social Work Faculty

• Thank you for your knowledge and expertise.
• I made changes in my classes due to this training.
• Really important opportunity for our faculty.
• Definitely student involvement is needed! This is wonderful.
• The facilitators are very knowledgeable about equity mindedness and inclusive excellence. This was not new material for me but engaging with other colleagues was very helpful.

Social Work Students

• This session was the most beneficial to me as a future social worker than ANY other exercise or class I’ve had throughout last semester and this semester.
• Thank y’all SO much!
• Love love love the energy level! I feel moved to really make changes.
• Thank you for going over group guidelines. The personal stories were very vulnerable and I appreciate that from both facilitators.
• Very engaging. Topics were informative and explained comprehensively. Dialogue was facilitated encouragingly, allowing for honesty and open conversation.
• I really enjoyed doing the Harvard IAT at home. It opened my eyes and showed me where my mind is really at.
• I enjoyed how examples from your real life were used because it's important to acknowledge how real bias and socialization are.

Jazz Studies

• I appreciate the effort that went into tailoring this presentation to Jazz Studies. 100% of it was useful.
• Thank you for a well-organized and thoughtful presentation. Positive changes will result.
• That was good – reflective but not condescending.

Housing and Residence Life (Socioeconomic Status Training)

• I thought this was a good evaluation. It made me re-evaluate my bias that I have (and did not realize) against wealthier folks. Or maybe not bias but stereotypes.

Classroom Trainings

Student Feedback

• I learned more about how to be open to talking about topics that may seem uncomfortable or difficult in a constructive way.
• The discussions that we've had these past two weeks have taught me how to broaden my horizons and look beyond my own bias and perspective.
• I hope to be more open to others and more understanding toward people who are different than me, especially as I make the jump into a professional career.
• Research and awareness are essential to inclusive communications so using inclusivity in practice through research and the lessons of calling in to share that knowledge when necessary will carry into future communications work.
• As an advertising major and a cis white woman I want to be able to use my privilege to make sure that if there isn't representation in the room already that I can make sure representation is present and to create inclusive ads that progress our society rather than hold us back. I learned a lot about calling people in rather than out, which is something that I usually do. I'm going to work on calling in to reach more people and make affective changes.

Instructor Feedback

• Thank you again, Shani! Your lecture, break out room and activities were so engaging and thought provoking. I was happy to see so many students participate...This was the highlight of the course and really offered life-skills for these seniors that are ready to transition to the professional world.
• I wanted to offer my deepest appreciation to both of you for presenting to our PLP students. This is such an important subject and I’m so glad we have resources available to our students to educate them and empower them for their next steps into corporate America. I am grateful to both of you for your commitment to educate and inform our UNT family. I myself learned a great deal and am looking forward to our next installment of training. Thank you again.
• Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule and presenting to the Professional Leadership Program. Our members really appreciated your presentation and learned so. much. They loved how interactive the presentation was and had the opportunity to have conversations and sharing experiences. You did an awesome job keeping us engaged and relating what you were saying to others and personal experiences. It was eye opening for some of our members that learned about other types of discrimination and adding examples helped their understanding. One thing one of our members told us that stood out was that one should not make assumptions and should just ask and not be afraid to ask.

Live Zoom Trainings

• Just got finished with your Bias Awareness and Perceptions training and wanted to say great job. Your use of the technology was fantastic. The training was interesting and kept me engaged the entire time. Just all around really incredible. I am at this moment trying to figure out how you did some of those things in Zoom so I can use them in my virtual classroom in the Fall. But the content was also great, approachable, and educational. I found myself reflecting on my own experiences and learning from others in the session. You led the discussion on difficult topics with ease and grace (which was crucial). Thanks for sharing your personal stories it made it all the easier to connect and understand. Just great, Brava!