RISE: Realizing Intentional Standards of Excellence


KU’s mission is to educate leaders, build healthy communities, and make discoveries that change the world. When we Realize Intentional Standards of Excellence, we contribute to the fulfilment of KU’s mission and vision by ensuring that access, success, respect, and belonging are integral to every part of KU’s research, scholarship, teaching, service, community engagement, and support.

Furthermore, a purposeful and organized plan to improve access, success, respect, and belonging across the institution is essential to securing HLC accreditation and keeping AAU membership. KU will not be competitive with peer and aspirant institutions until all Jayhawks understand and embody the reality that access, success, respect, and belonging are not additive but rather essential to all parts of the institution. Thus, RISE offers an action-oriented framework which helps advance belonging.

Four Priorities of RISE

  • Recruitment & Retention

  • Education, Research, and Scholarship

  • Campus Climate & Infrastructure

  • Community Engagement and Impact


Priorities

Recruitment & Retention

Criterion 1: Unit successfully recruits and ensures retention, academic outcomes, and degree completion for historically and systemically marginalized undergraduate students.

Criterion 2: Unit successfully recruits and ensures retention, academic outcomes, and degree completion for historically and systemically marginalized graduate and professional students.

Criterion 3: Unit successfully recruits and retains historically and systemically marginalized staff and faculty.

Education, Research, and Scholarship

Criterion 1: Unit offers curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities that utilize intersectional lenses and culturally sustaining pedagogy for undergraduate students.

Criterion 2: Unit offers curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities that utilize intersectional lenses and culturally sustaining pedagogy for graduate and professional students.

Criterion 3: Unit contributes to and supports employee participation in learning opportunities that foster competence in access, success, respect, belonging, intersectionality, social justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Criterion 4: Unit’s research and scholarship are grounded in inclusive and culturally sustaining practices.

Campus Climate & Infrastructure

Criterion 1: Unit has completed thorough audit of gaps, pain points, and opportunities for improvement in the areas of access, success, respect, and belonging.

Criterion 2: Unit has an evidence-based action plan to address policies, practices, and procedures which may be barriers to advancing access, success, respect, and belonging.

Criterion 3: Unit implements components of action plan in order to improve access, success, respect, and belonging.

Criterion 4: Unit has articulated how intersectional standards of excellence apply to their work and have set up accountability protocols.

Criterion 5: Unit has committed financial resources, personnel, and incentives which enable unit to realize intersectional standards of excellence.

Criterion 6: Create and sustain efforts to obtain grants, opportunities, and gifts which advance intersectional standards of excellence.

Community Engagement and Impact

Criterion 1: When connecting with historically and systemically marginalized populations throughout Kansas, the region, and country, the unit ensures the work is mutually beneficially and culturally sustaining.

Criterion 2: Unit, as applicable, supplies leadership in diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout Kansas, in the region, and across the country.

Criterion 3: When applicable, the unit uses its position to help improve the University’s positive economic impact on systemically marginalized communities throughout Kansas, in the region, and across the country.

Recruitment & Retention

Criterion 1: Unit successfully recruits and ensures retention, academic outcomes, and degree completion for historically and systemically marginalized undergraduate students.

Criterion 2: Unit successfully recruits and ensures retention, academic outcomes, and degree completion for historically and systemically marginalized graduate and professional students.

Criterion 3: Unit successfully recruits and retains historically and systemically marginalized staff and faculty.

Education, Research, and Scholarship

Criterion 1: Unit offers curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities that utilize intersectional lenses and culturally sustaining pedagogy for undergraduate students.

Criterion 2: Unit offers curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities that utilize intersectional lenses and culturally sustaining pedagogy for graduate and professional students.

Criterion 3: Unit contributes to and supports employee participation in learning opportunities that foster competence in access, success, respect, belonging, intersectionality, social justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Criterion 4: Unit’s research and scholarship are grounded in inclusive and culturally sustaining practices.

Campus Climate & Infrastructure

Criterion 1: Unit has completed thorough audit of gaps, pain points, and opportunities for improvement in the areas of access, success, respect, and belonging.

Criterion 2: Unit has an evidence-based action plan to address policies, practices, and procedures which may be barriers to advancing access, success, respect, and belonging.

Criterion 3: Unit implements components of action plan in order to improve access, success, respect, and belonging.

Criterion 4: Unit has articulated how intersectional standards of excellence apply to their work and have set up accountability protocols.

Criterion 5: Unit has committed financial resources, personnel, and incentives which enable unit to realize intersectional standards of excellence.

Criterion 6: Create and sustain efforts to obtain grants, opportunities, and gifts which advance intersectional standards of excellence.

Community Engagement and Impact

Criterion 1: When connecting with historically and systemically marginalized populations throughout Kansas, the region, and country, the unit ensures the work is mutually beneficially and culturally sustaining.

Criterion 2: Unit, as applicable, supplies leadership in diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout Kansas, in the region, and across the country.

Criterion 3: When applicable, the unit uses its position to help improve the University’s positive economic impact on systemically marginalized communities throughout Kansas, in the region, and across the country.

Education & Resource Portal

These materials can help your unit realize intentional standards of excellence.
DEIB RISE Toolbox