Diversity

• Resources needed: Funding for advertisements about speakers, as well as funding for stipends for speakers will be required.
• Responsibility: The college's Committee on Diversity and Equity (CDE) will be responsible for coordinating guest speakers and lecturers. The CDE will engage in efforts to recruit speakers who are diverse in ways that are underrepresented within the SDSU Imperial Valley community, including but not limited to sexual orientation, religion, gender identity, ability, and ethnicity or tribal affiliation.
• Assessment: The chair of the CDE will submit an annual report to the dean detailing implementation of this intervention.

• Resources needed: Ability to communicate with faculty via email, information from university and online sources about trainings.
• Responsibility: The CDE will distribute announcements about trainings to faculty and encourage faculty participation. The CDE will also request information from faculty about their participation in trainings each year. 
• Assessment: The CDE will submit an annual report to the dean detailing implementation of this intervention. The CDE will submit a record of faculty participation to the Division Chairs so that Division Chairs can include this information in letters that SDSU Imperial Valley faculty are required to submit as part of their materials during the Retention, Tenure, and Promotion process.

• Resources needed: Funding for online data-collection and participation incentives may be required. Assigned time for data collection, management, and analyses may also be required.
• Responsibility: The CDE will identify or create appropriate data-collection methods, including surveys.
• Assessment: The chair of the CDE will submit a report to the college detailing implementation of this intervention by 2025.

• Resources needed: Assignment of time/work responsibilities of staff and faculty at the San Diego and Imperial Valley campuses to serve on this committee will be required.
• Responsibility: The CDE will oversee communication with employees at both campuses and make recommendations as this new committee is created.
• Assessment: The chair of the CDE will submit a report to the college detailing implementation of this intervention by 2025.

• Resources needed: Administrative staff to communicate with lecturers/part-time faculty, space for the events, and funds for sundries (e.g., food) will be required.
• Responsibility: The Assistant Dean's Office will identify people to coordinate and host these events.
• Assessment: The CDE will coordinate with the Assistant Dean and create a report detailing implementation of this intervention.

• Resources needed: Funding for online data-collection and participation incentives may be required. Assigned time for data collection, management, and analyses may also be required.
• Responsibility: The CDE will identify or create appropriate data-collection methods, including surveys.
• Assessment: The chair of the CDE will submit a report to the college detailing implementation of this intervention by 2025.

• Resources needed: Not applicable; the BIE committee is organized by the Associate Chief Diversity Officer.
• Responsibility: The Chair of the search committee will be responsible for including the BIE criteria in the job advertisement. The search chair will also be responsible for submitting candidate materials to the Dean's Office and the Associate Chief Diversity Officer (ACDO) for review by the BIE committee as soon as finalists are selected. After the determination is made by the BIE committee, the Dean and the search committee chair will be notified by the ACDO. 
• Assessment: The college will submit an annual report to the faculty detailing implementation of this intervention.

• Resources needed: Not applicable; this program is funded by the Chief Diversity Officer.  
• Responsibility: The search committee chair will request an approved Inclusion Representative through the IR program as advised by the Associate Chief Diversity Officer. 
• Assessment: The college will submit an annual report to the faculty detailing the implementation of this intervention.

• Resources needed: This program is funded by the Chief Diversity Officer. Committee members will need to invest at two-three hours to complete the basic training.
• Responsibility: The search committee chair is responsible for confirming that all members have participated in the training prior to beginning review of applications. 
• Assessment: The college will submit an annual report to the faculty detailing implementation of this intervention.

• Resources needed: Committee chairs may need training to interpret the data and understand appropriate actions to increase pool proportionality.
• Responsibility: The search committee chair is responsible for submitting the pool proportionality form, and any required documentation, to OERC and the ACDO. 
• Assessment: The College will submit an annual report to the faculty detailing implementation of this intervention

A Land Acknowledgment is a formal statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous peoples as traditional stewards of a given geographic area and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their ancestral territories. For San Diego State, we recognize the land as Kumeyaay.

Recognizing the land is a practice that honors and respects contemporary Indigenous peoples’ connection to their land since time immemorial. Using a Land Acknowledgment is a way to express gratitude and appreciation for those whose territory one resides or works on. From an Indigenous perspective, it is important for people to understand the history that brought them to the land and that people seek to comprehend their place within that history. This is especially important since most Indigenous peoples were dispossessed of their lands through deceptive processes. The land San Diego State currently occupies, for example, was never legally ceded by Kumeyaay people through treaty or sale.

Most Indigenous people consider colonialism as a current and ongoing process. Land Acknowledgments serve to build mindfulness and awareness of colonialism, both past and present. Acknowledging the land is also a common protocol practiced by Indigenous peoples and allies worldwide

Wherever you travel, you can acknowledge the Indigenous people of the territory that you are on. One helpful resource to use is https://native-land.ca/, a database that recognizes the traditional territories across North and South America as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Much of the central, southern, and east San Diego County is Kumeyaay territory; while most of North County is Luiseño traditional homelands. Concise acknowledgments can consist of: “I want to take a moment to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Kumeyaay [or insert other nation name(s)].” If you are at an event at another university campus in San Diego County, be sure to ask a representative of that campus for their Land Acknowledgment statement.

To include in your email signature please use:

Indigenous Residence: Kumeyaay

Indigenous land borrowing/occupying: The Kumeyaay

For events on campus at San Diego State, please use the full or abbreviated Land Acknowledgment statement below: Kumeyaay Land Acknowledgment created by Mike Connolly Miskwish (Kumeyaay)

[Full Version] We stand upon a land that carries the footsteps of millennia of Kumeyaay people. They are a people whose traditional lifeways intertwine with a worldview of earth and sky in a community of living beings. This land is part of a relationship that has nourished, healed, protected and embraced the Kumeyaay people to the present day. It is part of a world view founded in the harmony of the cycles of the sky and balance in the forces of life. For the Kumeyaay, red and black represent the balance of those forces that provide for harmony within our bodies as well as the world around us. As students, faculty, staff and alumni of San Diego State University we acknowledge this legacy from the Kumeyaay. We promote this balance in life as we pursue our goals of knowledge and understanding. We find inspiration in the Kumeyaay spirit to open our minds and hearts. It is the legacy of the red and black. It is the land of the Kumeyaay.

Eyay e’Hunn My heart is good.

[Abbreviated Version] For millennia, the Kumeyaay people have been a part of this land. This land has nourished, healed, protected and embraced them for many generations in a relationship of balance and harmony. As members of the San Diego State community we acknowledge this legacy. We promote this balance and harmony. We find inspiration from this land; the land of the Kumeyaay. 

You can download a copy here: Land Acknowledgment