Our Mission & Office
The MU Equity Office was created in response to a finding of the MU Campus Climate Study that survey respondents - including faculty, students, and staff - generally had trouble determining which offices on campus could address their discrimination or other equity-related concerns. Moreover, when they did find an office charged with helping them with their particular kind of problem, respondents often were not satisfied with the results.
Our Mission
Therefore, the primary mission of the Equity Office is simple and straightforward:
- We help members of the MU community satisfactorily resolve equity-related problems.
- We identify systemic equity problems and work to correct them.
Our Office
The Equity Office works with MU faculty, staff, and students who believe they may have been subjected to unfair or inequitable treatment for any reason. At its most basic, our office seeks to address bias, including but not limited to discrimination on the basis of considerations prohibited by law or official university policy. We assist individuals who believe they may have been harassed or treated differently than others in the same situation.
The MU Equity Office also provides campus-wide leadership, coordination, and assistance on institutional matters of equity and compliance. Illustrative projects include exit interviews for faculty and workshops for members of faculty search committees (a work-in-progress).
The Equity Office is a division of the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative. Often we work with other members of the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative to enhance cultural competency skills of individuals who have come to our attention through the equity inquiry process.