This document discusses implicit bias and its impacts in higher education. It summarizes that implicit bias is predictive, routine, pervasive, and can conflict with explicit beliefs and values. It is culturally patterned and consequential, and is embedded within individuals and institutions. The document then discusses how the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) has established the STRIDE committee to provide peer-to-peer training on recognizing and reducing implicit bias in faculty hiring. The STRIDE committee leads focused conversations and works directly with departments to provide guidance on best practices to maximize diversity in faculty recruitment and hiring.

1. Public
Founded in 1966
Predominantly White Institution (PWI)
Carnegie High-Research
13,640 Students
423 Tenure Track Faculty
2003 NSF ADVANCE IT GRANT
The University of Maryland,
Baltimore County (UMBC)

2. Implicit Bias
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Characteristics:
• Predictive
• Routine
• Pervasive
• Conflicts with explicit beliefs
and values
• Culturally patterned
• Consequential
• Embedded within individuals
and institutions
(Kirwan Institute, 2015)
Impacts
Everyone

3. Implicit Bias Impacts the Success of Higher
Education
JSU Vision JSU ADVANCE Goals
Jacksonville State University provides
distinctive educational,
cultural and social experiences
for a diverse student
population. As a learning-centered
university, Jacksonville State University
strives to challenge students academically in
a responsive environment, meeting students'
educational, career and personal goals. As an
academic institution, Jacksonville State
University seeks to produce broadly-
educated graduates prepared for
global engagement. As a public,
comprehensive university, Jacksonville State
University promotes excellence in scholarly
and service activities consistent with its
academic and professional strengths.
— The overall emphasis of the JSU
ADVANCE program is the enhancement
of the work climate for women faculty in
the Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines,
and in the Social and Behavioral Science
(SBS) disciplines while informing
the larger academic
community about issues
relevant to women,
particularly those of color,
at Historically Black
Colleges and Universities
(HBCUs).

4. Diversity and
Inclusive Excellence
“Critical diversity” is the equal inclusion of
people from varied backgrounds on a parity basis
throughout all ranks and divisions of an
organization. It especially refers to those who are
considered to be different from the traditional
members because of exclusionary practices. The
critical diversity perspective argues that as
organizations become more diverse, they benefit
relative to their competitors. This is in contrast to
other accounts that view diversity as either
inconsequential to success or actually
detrimental.”
(Henderson and Herring, 2013, 300)

5. Diversity and
Academic Department
Rankings
“Positive relationships
between the program
rankings at research
universities and the racial
and gender diversity among
students and faculty”
Henderson and Herring, 2013, 299
Surveyed 5,000 Departments using 2011 NAS Rankings of
Research Universities
— Henderson, L. & Herring, C. (2013). Does Critical
Diversity Pay in Higher Education? Race, Gender, and
Departmental Rankings in Research Universities. Politics,
Groups, and Identities, 1(3), 299–310.
— Herring, C. (2013). Critical Diversity and Departmental
Rankings in Sociology. American Sociologist, 44(3), 267-
281.

6. Our Goal: Meaningful
and Sustained
Institutional
Transformation
(Success is Never Final!)
¡ Move beyond deficit and
pathway explanations of
underrepresentation and focus
on structural inequities,
implicit biases and
climate. Bias and Barriers,
2007
¡ Work as organizational
catalysts to build an
architecture of inclusion
Strum, 2006
¡ Foster institutional
citizenship and
institutional mindfulness
Strum, 2007

7. UMBC – STRIDE: Recognizing
and Reducing Implicit Bias
Committee on Strategies and Tactics for
Recruiting to Improve Diversity and
Excellence is a faculty-led group that
provides peer-to-peer training on the ways
that overt discrimination, implicit bias,
accumulated advantage and disadvantage,
and the influence of gender and racial schema
have inhibited the recruitment and hiring of
underrepresented minority faculty.
STRIDE also provides guidance on best
practices that will maximize the likelihood
that diverse candidates for faculty positions
will be identified, recruited, and hired at
UMBC. The Committee leads focused
conversations for faculty and administrators
involved in every stage of the hiring process.
It also works directly with individual
departments by meeting with chairs, faculty
search committees, and other department
faculty involved in hiring.
Susan McDonough
Associate Professor,
History
Kevin Omland
Professor,
Biological Sciences
Chris Murphy
Professor,
Psychology
Nilanjan Banerjee
Associate Professor,
Computer Science
Autumn M. Reed
Director,
Provost Office