DEIJB Resources

Student and Student Diversity Committee Work

• Student Orientation: building common language and understandings
• Starting "the work" with all students
• BIPOC student meetings/gatherings
• Learning to be anti-racist in thoughts and action for white students

Curriculum

• 11th Grade American Studies-Course Description

Faculty & Staff

• Faculty and staff participated in summer DEI workgroups. The groups have decided to continue throughout the year.
• Faculty workshops have included:
  • Microaggressions/Black@/Putney
  • Accumulated Impact of Microaggressions
  • Microaggressions & Feedback
• Creation of faculty working and learning groups:
  • BIPOC Faculty and Staff affinity meeting
  • Anit-Racist White Educator Learning Group

On Campus Events

• Speaker: Arshay Cooper, author, A Most Beautiful Thing
• Hakeem Rahim, speaker, educator & advocate committed to creating communities of wellness, joy & acceptance.

Upcoming Events, Programming & Work for Fall 2020

• NAIS Climate Survey (scheduled for early November)
• Families of BIPOC families Zoom session
• Staff & Adjunct training
• Film series
• Dialogue evenings
• School audit

January 2021 Report

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice in the Curriculum 

Curriculum

• Highlighting curricular programming where we connect “the work” of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice to students’ learning 
• Working toward an anti-racist future by increasing our representation of race and ethnicity in our faculty, staff and student body, and continuing to build a diverse, inclusive and just community
• Defining what it means to have an anti-racist school and identifying current curriculm that supports those efforts
• Adding two new anti-racist courses: Ethnic Studies and Philosophy for Social Change to the 2021-2022 curriculum 

Professional Development

• 3 workshops with Dr. Liza Talusan
• Faculty/staff working groups to complete the 21-Day Racial Equity and Inclusion Challenge
• People of Color Conference (NAIS) 
• Summer 2021 - The Equity Playbook: Move School Culture from Words to Action 
• Planning for staff and adjunct professional development in DIEJ (Summer 2021)
• Faculty and staff summer reading

Strategic Planning

• Create a strategy to racially and socioeconomically diversity the student and adult community to reflect national averages of U.S. population
• Build skills and knowledge about race, white supremacy and antiracism with all members of the Putney community
• Formally reviewing the diversity of the community and our admissions, hiring and retention results on an annual basis
• Create accountability for diversity, equity, and inclusion growth and performance within employee and program evaluation systems
• Commit financial resources and time to full employee anti-racism training
• Use racial equity as a lens through which to view the whole institution and to make decisions 
• Create a requirement for ongoing employee professional development on the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion with a focus on developing anti-racist teachers and curriculum 
• Continue to create affinity spaces for members of underrepresented groups to foster support and connection. (At Putney, local and national conferences) 

In 2026, Putney will be a diverse community in which cultural, language, and ethnic distinctions will be cultivated and celebrated. The school culture will be one of curiosity, contemplation, engagement and dialogue, sending out graduates who can work collaboratively across race, class and cultural divides.

 Full 10 Year Vision Statement

Diversity and Cultural Fluency

We will continue to work on cultural integration and social justice education on campus. We will need sufficient off-campus opportunities for students to meet the new graduation requirements in cross-cultural competency.  

Board of Trustees:

• Add to the  board position descriptions trustee responsibility for networking to support Diversity and Equity on campus.

Administration:

• Map diversity and cultural fluency as they exist in our curriculum and campus culture
• Create systems for conflict resolution based on restorative justice approaches to conflict
• Develop off-campus cross cultural opportunities for all students
• Develop a homestay program for international students with strong family engagement  

Goals: 

• Re-revamp DEI mission statement to explicitly include anti-racism
• Write set of anti-racist expectations/attitudes for prospective board members to commit to before joining
• Incorporate anti-racist language in board functioning and documents
• Seek out and interrogate/fix exclusive and non transparent systems within board functioning
• Prospect for future BIPOC board members
• Act as ambassadors for the school
• Create a coalition of alumni and parents to support the school in DEI efforts 

Done since 2018:

• Facilitated workshop on diversity and inclusion for alumni weekend  
• Explicitly prioritized Black American experience in DEI efforts (universal design principles)
• Co-created #BLM statement for school
• Pushed for DEI Director position 
• Presentation for board on unspoken norms 
• Presentation for board on equity vs. equality
• Revamp of DEI mission statement 
• Changed name from from "Diversity Committee" to "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee"

Next steps (or in process):

• Organize ongoing Alum PoC Public Forum/meeting (as affinity spaces and some meetings with an administrative team)
• Antiracist book club for board members
• Examine financial policies (where admissions and development $$ is spent) for alignment for DEI mission statement
• Create Alum of Color/Student of Color connection program
• White Supremacy workshop for board 
• Advocate for regular update on Putney doings for class secretaries and agents, especially on antiracism, inclusion, and calls for board membership

• Assess school culture, students, and adults
• Work with Dean of Faculty on DEI professional development
• Work with Dean of Students on student programming
• Work with teachers and department heads on curriculum development
• Run student Leader Workshops: Fitting In vs. Belonging
• Support students speaking at the Brattleboro Youth Climate about the intersection of Climate Justice and Racial Justice 
• Road Trip with BIPOC Students visiting colleges in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York 
• Support Student-led discussions/affinity spaces on micro (macro) aggressions
• Organize student DEI learning, such as Social Justice Leadership Institute at Phillips Exeter
• Organize MLK 2020 Workshop Offerings-34 workshops  (Faculty and Student Developed)
• Launch Civil Disagreement sessions 

• NAIS AIM Survey and DEI audit: A Report to the Putney Community 2020-2021. The audit will include information and updates on the following (sample topics): Recommendations; discipline and bias; diversity and hiring; affinity groups; residential program; curriculum and program; infrastructure; implicit bias
• Organize ongoing Public Forum /Meeting for families of BIPOC students
• Develop a “reporting” protocol for microaggressions that includes students, faculty, and staff access
• Require annual professional development for faculty and staff on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Require annual zoom updates from Development/Alumni office for Class Agents and secretaries on DEI efforts and progress as well as efforts and progress in other Putney priorities (environmental activism, socially responsible investing, involvement in the local community and world community, speaking truth to power, amplifying repressed voices, etc).
• Continue to explore and work on the challenges to support and retain faculty of color
• Name the barriers to access to Putney and explore ways to break down barriers to Putney specifically to include student applicants from currently underrepresented communities
• Create an Alumni Equity and Inclusion Engagement Committee to be transparent about the work that is happening on campus and help inform the critical work. 
• Supporting further professional development for faculty as teachers, advisers, house parents, and coaches to strengthen their work with and support students of color.
• Continue to identify, create, and support affinity spaces for students, alumni and families.

• To facilitate an education about intersectionality in order to maintain and form an inclusive and safe environment at Putney
• To support the various identities on and around campus within and outside of race, including but not limited to: LGBTQ+ community, religion, spirituality, neurodivergence, disability and more
• Encourage respectful disagreement and conversation amongst students and faculty alike for the betterment of ourselves and the community
• Help dismantle -isms on and off of the hill
• To be a resource that the community can reach out to for better understanding

• Work closely with the Director of Equity and Inclusion to access and address issues of diversity at Putney, and organize events accordingly
• Coordinate and run bi-weekly affinity meetings for different identities such as students of color, Spectrum, and International students
• Plan, prepare and run multiple all school events
• Hold all-school meetings on social issues. Additionally working in tandem with a variety of student leadership groups, such as: Heads of School, Spectrum, International Ambassadors, and Sustainability, in order to host collaborative meetings
• Make presentations in assembly about important social issues, current events, or anything important that the community should know.
• Run the Putney Justice Instagram account.

• Students  participated in the Social Justice Leadership Institute at Phillips Exeter
• MLK 2020 ( A Day Spent in Community- Learning, Stretching and Doing)
• AISNE Diversity, Equity & Inclusion High- School Virtual Gathering
• Organize MLK 2020 Workshop Offerings-34 workshops  (Faculty and Student Developed)
• Student-led discussions/affinity spaces on micro (macro) aggressions

The Putney Core outlines academic objectives for a student’s years at Putney.  There are 7 throughlines, defining knowledge and skills that are essential across disciplines.  The first throughline is: 

Ethical, Cultural & Social Justice Perspectives: Understands the ethical implications of questions raised in each discipline. Understands that all fields may be viewed through differing cultural lenses, and appreciates the value of other perspectives. Understands the complexities of social justice. (RUBRIC)

Issues of social justice and race are taught across the curriculum, with particular emphasis in these classes:

1. 1. • Humans in the Natural World (9th grade integrated curriculum)
      • Social Contracts (10th grade history)
      • American Studies(11th grade Humanities)
      • Financial Literacy and Realities in all Math Courses
      • Say What You Mean (writing)
      • Feminist Perspectives (elective)
      • World Language Courses

Recent Project Weeks groups include:

• Facing Whiteness
• Stamped from the Beginning
• Border Links
• Social Constructs and History of Gender

• AISNE Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
• Teaching While White Conference
• Diversity and Inclusion in Vermont Libraries
• NAIS People of Color Conference
• Beacon Academy Symposium on Race and Class
• Social Justice Mediation
• Examining Equity Practices in Enrollment: Exploring Implicit Bias
• Summer Working Groups for DEI

Resident faculty members and dorm heads who identify as people of color: 8