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College of Education

Commitment to Inclusive Excellence

Clemson people of color inclusive excellence

When the College of Education emerged as a standalone college in 2014, the faculty and staff developed a set of core values, including its role as “transformative leaders in improving education, beginning at birth and with a particular focus on serving underperforming schools and underserved communities." Over the years, the College has demonstrated a commitment to these values with long-standing programs such as Call Me MISTER® and ClemsonLIFE™ and new degree programs and innovative initiatives that focus on race, rurality, and poverty. In these efforts, the College seeks to develop actions that will contribute to our goal of making P-20 education an institution enhancing inclusive excellence.

Strategic Plan

The College of Education is implementing a five-year strategic plan to enact its inclusive excellence ideals in systematic and measurable ways. The following is a summary of the primary goals of this plan. Read our complete plan objectives and related action steps.

  • Inclusive Excellence Outcomes

    Our strategic plan is driving towards the following outcomes:

    • Diversity — diversity, or social difference, exists without much effort (i.e., if everyone in the space were racially White there’d be diversity (class; sexuality; religion; etc.))
    • Equity (justice) — everyone has what they actually need to thrive (even if that’s different from the person sitting next to them)
    • Inclusion — purposeful inclusion of social difference in particular spaces (i.e., who is included where and why)

    If you would like to see more details about how we define a variety of inclusive excellence concepts in our work, click the button.

    Inclusive Excellence Concepts

  • Inclusive Excellence Goals

    Organizational Goals

    • Climate Practices and Policies: Prioritize building the CoE’s capacity to engage in equity, diversity, and inclusion systematically, systemically, and collaboratively
    • Student Support Systems: Create a climate where all students feel supported, academically and socially, and feel a sense of belonging regardless of identity
    • Communicating CoE Expertise: Collaborate with campus partners to increase visibility of the College's expertise in the areas of inclusive excellence across research, teaching, and service
    • College Leaders’ Intercultural Competence: Increase the intercultural competence of college leadership as a way to support equity-centered leadership practice
    • Leadership Development Opportunities: Prioritize Inclusive Excellence in CoE leadership development

    Student Goals

    • Student Intercultural Competence: Build students’ capacity to systematically and systemically engage in inclusive excellence
    • Recruit Underrepresented Undergraduate Students: Increase the number of racially and ethnically minoritized undergraduate students
    • Recruiting Underrepresented Graduate Students: Increase the number of racially and ethnically minoritized graduate students
    • Curricula: Create a cohesive curriculum that centers equity and equity-mindedness as a primary learning outcome across all Education programs
    • College Capacity - Co Curriculum: Build college capacity to systematically and systemically engage students in equity-centered co-curricular experiences that promote inclusive excellence
    • Field Experiences: Build college capacity to systematically and systemically engage students in curricular field-based experiences that promote equity, diversity, and inclusion

    Faculty and Staff Goals

    • Faculty & Staff Intercultural Competence: Build faculty and staff capacity to systematically and systemically engage in inclusive excellence
    • Recruiting Underrepresented Faculty & Staff: Increase the number of racially and ethnically minoritized faculty and staff from local and national searches
    • Retention of Underrepresented Faculty & Staff: Improve the overall 5-year retention rate for racially and ethnically minoritized faculty and staff by identifying current college or institutional barriers to their retention
    • Faculty & Staff Professional Development: Increase the competence of administrators, faculty, and staff to engage in equity-centered instructional practices and content
    • Research Support: Prioritize equity, diversity, and inclusion in the CoE by increasing opportunities to work with and for underserved communities
  • Progress Updates

    The Inclusive Excellence Implementation has been actively enacting the College of Education’s strategic plan since its final approval in Spring 2022. As we start implementing different goals and objectives according to the plan timeline, we will post updates to keep our college community apprised of our progress.

  • Monthly IE Newsletter

Our Impact

The College of Education understands Inclusive Excellence as an active process through which the College achieves excellence in learning, teaching, student development, organizational functioning, and engagement in local and global communities by surfacing inequities experienced by internal and external constituents, integrating equity and educational quality efforts, and building theory and context-based practices for sustained organizational change.

Our People

While inclusive excellence efforts in the College of Education are community-wide endeavor in which all community members play an important part, the following individuals are providing leadership in the implementation of our strategic plan.

  • Dean Fellows

    The College of Education has appointed two faculty members — Faiza Jamil and Rachel Wagner — to serve as Dean Fellows for Inclusive Excellence. Working closely with the dean, Jamil and Wagner lead the implementation team of faculty, staff, and student representatives focused on the enhancement of diversity and inclusion in the College. Jamil is an associate professor in the Department of Education and Human Development, and Wagner is an associate professor in the Department of Educational and Organizational Leadership Development.

    Faiza Jamil

    Faiza Jamil
    Associate Professor
    409-C Gantt Circle
    864-656-7645
    fjamil@clemson.edu

    Rachel Wagner

    Rachel Wagner
    Assistant Professor
    406 Gantt Circle
    864-656-5111
    rwagne3@clemson.edu

  • Implementation Team

    Faiza Jamil, Education and Human Development

    Rachel Wagner, Educational and Organizational Leadership Development

    Michelle Cook, Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies

    Heather Brooker, Education and Human Development

    Sharetta Buford, Doctoral Student, Learning Science

    Angela Carter, Educational and Organizational Leadership Development

    Latasha Chapell, Office of Field and Clinical Partnerships and Outreach

    Brandi Douglas, Doctoral Student, Education Leadership

    Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens, Education and Human Development

    Jill Shelnut, Teaching and Learning

    Valerie Oonk, Undergraduate Advising

  • Contact Us

Campus Resources

Members of the College and University community are encouraged to make use of campus resources to stay engaged with inclusive excellence. The following curated list offers a variety of accepts points to community resources. If you do not find what you are looking for here, please contact us for additional information.

Inclusive Excellence News

read more at news.clemson.edu
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