Ohio Wesleyan University

In Spring 2021, OWU conducted a “full student athlete inclusion training” followed by post-training surveys and discussions. “Coaches and athletics administrators also completed DEI module training.”

The OWU Residential Life Office provides DEI training and Bias Incident Response training to its student Resident Assistants.

OWU has appointed 25 faculty to serve as "equity fellows" who will "meet biweekly to discuss readings, write reflections on pedagogy and process, and work to make our teaching and learning spaces more inclusive and equitable. Sessions will focus on various aspects of organizational practice and will require faculty to reflect on their identities as scholars and teachers. Faculty will consider how classroom, departmental, and institutional practices directly impact issues of inclusivity and equity in students’ personal and academic lives."

As part of the Bachelor’s degree requirement, all students at OQU are required to complete one Cultural Diversity course.

As part of the OWU Education Department’s Mission Statement, they state that “we use Critical Race Theory and theories of social justice to frame our education courses and to support our students’ competence in implementing culturally responsive pedagogy that is antiracist.”

As part of the new Core Competency requirement at OWU, all students are required to take one course from the Examine Power and Inequities category, one course from the Diversity category, and one course Act in Responsibility in a Diverse World category.

The new First Year Seminar now “incorporates DEI as integral to critical thinking and analysis both as framework and content.”

Education majors at OWU’s teacher preparation program are “required to take ‘Teaching for Equity and Social Justice,’ which addresses systems of power, privilege, and oppression.”

The Faculty Handbook at OWU has been modified to include equity related policies and the relevance of DEI in teaching.

OWU’s Division of Academic Affairs has its own DEI Action Plan that includes DEI training modules for faculty anti-bias training, DEI pedagogical classroom circles, conducting a diversity audit of the OWU curriculum, and integrating DEI further into the OWU curriculum.

In the third week of October 2023, the Athletics Department and the student athletes/teams led the activities for the NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Week.

On January 9, 2023, OWU awarded three students with the new OWU Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Grant.

OWU received a “$50,000 grant, funded by the Mellon Foundation through the GLCA Global Crossroads program, to organize virtual cross-cultural communication and intercultural reconciliation training in summer and fall 2023.”

As of September 2023, the Office of Multicultural Students Affairs at OWU provided DEI Training and attended the National Conference on Race & Equity.

OWU’s University Advancement Division held a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Symposium in February 2023.

As part of its commitment towards diversity, equity, and inclusion, OWU offers DEI Grants towards DEI “projects that support OWU becoming an antiracist space.”

OWU assistant professor of Education, Dr. Sarah Kaka, wrote a new book “designed to help middle and high school teachers provide standards-based lessons that address issues of historical inequity and inequality.”

The OWU Libraries have a new DEI Ebook Collection that focuses on issues of race, gender, and inclusion in America.

The OWU Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion supports the DEI Campus Book Club, The DEI Viewing Series, and the DEI Author Talk series.

On May 12, 2022, the OWU Board of Trustees passed a DEI resolution towards a “diverse community and an equitable and inclusive culture.”

The university published their 2020-2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan which lists structures and policies in place for diversity, equity, and inclusion, such as DEI Training, DEI Grants, Recruitment, Enrollment, and Retention.

As part of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan, OWU has been conducting DEI programming to fraternities with sessions on “leadership” and “toxic masculinity” and to sororities with sessions on the US being built on white supremacy in a system “developed to benefit a few while exploiting many.”

On April 23, 2023, the University held its Multicultural Graduation celebrating diversity and recognizing “the challenges they have overcome to achieve success.”