IDARE

IDARE Toolkit Accountability grows from shared commitment and thoughtful leadership

To Boldly Go is a vision that calls UC Davis to be the kind of institution that values diversity of thought, continually practices inclusive excellence, and weaves its values into everyday decisions and operations. Our aim is to support every unit on campus to embed campus goals in their organization—in long-range and short-term plans, in budget asks, in professional development, in culture and organizational structure, in policies and practices, in hiring protocol, and beyond.

Read the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Vision Read To Boldly Go Goal 3

 

Why Committees?

In a study of over 800 firms in the U.S., scholars found that when organizations created diversity managers and diversity task forces, they were able to make significantly more progress in improving organizational culture.

 Read the study.

The focus of the IDARE initiative is on supporting divisional committees means that organizational development practitioners and leaders are able to work together to take action on their goals around improving organizational culture and creating environments were all can thrive.  IDARE was launched in 2020 at UC Davis Health under the leadership of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusions's Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (HEDI). The success of IDARE led us to launch this endeavor broadly across UC Davis in 2023.

Forming Your Committee

Ready to get started?

Identifying Problem Statements

Here are some prompts as you think about what DEI issues you might address and how to prioritize them.

  • Reviewing your strategic investments against UC Davis strategic plans. Where would you like to focus more time, effort, or concentration?
  • Within those objectives what are some of the issues or priorities that are emerging for your organization?
  • How do you know about this problem? How do you know that it is a problem?
  • How often do you face this problem? When or where does it come up the most?
  • What is it important to address this problem? What is the impact of the problem? Who does it impact most?
  • What would it look like to make progress on this problem?
  • What is currently being done to address this problem?
  • How will you develop a proposed solution, e.g. who will you consult or engage, and what will the process look like?
  • Is there future evidence, research or data that you need to understand the problem better?

Structure your Committee

  • Identify representative and/or IDARE committee chair(s).
  • Create a committee charge.
  • Identify all stakeholders, such as other departmental committees, affinity groups, student groups, working groups, task forces, etc.
  • Develop a membership strategy to ensure that all stakeholders are represented.
  • Make succession plans for future years.

Assess the Landscape

  • Identify the investments that have already been made within your organization.
  • Map current ideas to the goals of To Boldly Go.
  • Look for gaps.
  • Write your problem statement(s).

Plan and Execute

  • Engage committee and other stakeholders in the planning process.
  • Work with campus partners to identify data that will show the evidence of the problem you are trying to solve and/or of the potential success of the intervention you are proposing.
  • Refine draft action plan, including problem statements, proposed actions, and evidence.
  • Assign tasks, execute, and track progress.

Cultivate community and continuous improvement

  • Leverage the IDARE community to remove barriers, find areas of collaboration, and be in community as practitioners. IDARE committee chairs and co-chairs are invited to a quarterly meeting that equips and empowers them to work more effectively across their organization. IDARE committees then work to engage all groups within their unit working on organizational culture issues—at the department, unit, or constituency level.
  • Report on your achievements, find best practices, and identify ways to improve. IDARE committees are  responsible for helping our university document and report on their projects, ongoing recommendations from university stakeholders, and their school/college/unit’s progress on campus goals. 

Vision Grants

Fostering innovation and collaboration

The Vision Grants (previously known as "innovation grants") are intended to foster innovative and creative ideas that support and further the implementation of our Principles of Community, the UC Davis Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Vision and DEI goals of the Strategic Vision for UC Davis.

The last call for projects, in spring of 2023, has closed. We will announce future calls in our news feed.

Reporting

Sharing Projects and Progress

UC Davis has made a number of investments in our organizational development and community goals, and there are additional projects planned for the future in an effort to develop a more inclusive campus community.

 

IDARE Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • How did you select the “schools, colleges, and large administrative units” that are recommended to form an IDARE committee?

  • For a large and complex campus such as UC Davis we needed to follow a structure that aligned with the organization and where we can bring people together groups that work effectively.  Although no system is perfect, we have identified large organizational units on the Davis campus that will serve as the backbone for our IDARE Community of Practice. We believe that we can capture most, if not all, of the departmental and unit-level committees by connecting with resources among the units listed at the right. Because of the nature of a Community of Practice, we need to keep the groups manageable. However, we are still learning. If your organization is not on this list, but think you should be on it, please contact us.  
    Committees represent the following IDARE units:

    Colleges

    • College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences  
      College of Biological Sciences  
      College of Engineering  
      College of Letters and Sciences


    Schools*

    • Graduate School of Management  
      School of Education   
      School of Law  
      School of Vet Med 


    Administrative Units**

    • Academic Affairs
      Academic Senate  
      Athletics  
      Continuing and Professional Education  
      Develop / Alumni Relations  
      Diversity, Equity and Inclusion  
      Enrollment Management 
      Finance, Operations, Administration
      Global Affairs  
      Graduate Studies  
      Info and Educ Technology  
      Library 
      Mondavi Center 
      Office of Research  
      Office of the Chancellor and Provost*** 
      Strategic Communications  
      Student Affairs  
      Undergraduate Education

      *The Betty Irene School of Nursing and School of Medicine are part of IDARE at UC Davis Health
      **The medical center and clinics  fall under I-DARE at UC Davis Health. 
      ***Some units that are under the Office of the Chancellor and Provost are included separately on this list.
  • What will this work look like?
  • We will engage our IDARE committee chairs at quarterly half-day Community of Practice meetings. The participants will have opportunities to hear from university and community experts on topics relevant to the quality our working and learning environments, and then they will have an opportunity to discuss, explore, and learn from each other on how to put ideas into practice. Over the course of the year, we will meet schools, colleges, and large administrative units where they are—helping them to organize or re-organize their IDARE committees, refine their charge, and gather skills and resources. We will look at how IDARE committees can assess where they are in relation to university goals through the use of campus-wide experience surveys and organizational reflection exercises. They will identify the best ways to identify and engage practitioners in their organizations, including departmental and constituency-based committees, to communicate findings and gather further feedback. We will then work together to create IDARE action plans that operationalize the vision and the UC Davis Principles of Community.

    We hope to learn from these discussions how we can better equip organizations to do this important work, how we can empower them by galvanizing resources and ecosystems of support, and how we can elevate their accomplishments.  
     
  • What is the purpose of the IDARE community meetings, and what can I expect from participating?
  • We see IDARE community meetings as an opportunity for committee chairs to learn from each other by sharing their experiences, needs, and concerns in an honest and open space, with the goal of holding the campus to its shared vision for organizational culture. The size of the meetings is intended to support a strong commitment to the goals of the group, to enable deep conversation among diversity, equity and inclusion leaders, and generate agreed upon deliverables that advance campus-wide goals.  Because we anticipate members will be addressing difficult, controversial and even sensitive topics, we want to ensure that we create a space where trust abounds, where assumptions can be challenged, and where activities move us toward real institutional transformation.
  • I'm not an IDARE chair, but I'm doing related work. What resources are available for someone like me?
  • Our division will also host a regular event where we bring together all practitioners whose work is related to IDARE.  IDARE practitioners may be members of our employee resource groups, Administrative Advisory Committees that report into our division, IDARE committee members at any level, or any UC Davis faculty, staff, or student who have organizational development work as part of their role or job description. The event will be focused around professional learning and connecting people to each other and to those in our division that can serve as a resource to you.
  • We are one of the IDARE organizational units, but we don’t yet have a committee. How do we participate?
  • We recognize that IDARE committees need to be formed with care, such that they are representative and don’t place unnecessary burdens on those who are already carrying a service burden. This is not always an easy process. We will meet all organizations where they are along this journey. We would simply ask that the unit send a liaison to the Community of Practice, and we will work with you to take the next steps.
  • What is the history of IDARE?
  • Founded at UC Davis Health in 2020, IDARE catalyzed a health system wide effort to advance the goals outlined in the UC Davis Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Vision. Learn more.

    Here is a timeline that reflects major milestones in our DEI planning process. 

    2014-2017 Chancellor Linda Katehi charges a committee to write a diversity strategic plan. After three years of deep engagement, the campus issues its vision.
    2017-2019 Following the publication of the plan, the campus learned more about the recommendations, and hired the inaugural Vice Chancellor, Renetta Garrison Tull, to oversee the effort. 
    2019-2021 A growing desire to participate and support the effort, especially to formalize how the campus held itself accountable to the DEI goals, emerged. UC Davis Health launches their IDARE initiative.
    2022-24 The launch of IDARE at UC Davis.
    2024-26 Through the IDARE initiative, UC Davis adds support for skills-building and additional tools to equip the IDARE and other committees to create action plans and achieve their goals. 
     
  • How can our organization start to assess where we are with campus goals?
  • UC Davis and the UC system routinely survey various constituent groups to learn about their experience on our campus. These surveys offer opportunities to compare recent and historical data, conform to high standards of the treatment of data, and come with the ability for institutional research analysts to provide reporting at various organizational levels. We encourage units to start their search for insights in these surveys before initiating a new assessment. Our division, in partnership with Institutional Analysis, is happy to offer consultation on how to utilize these results effectively. 

    Undergraduate Students 
    UCUES (UC Undergraduate Experience Survey) 
    American College Health Association - National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA)  
    Graduate Students 
    UC Graduate Student Experience Survey (UCGSES)  
    UC Davis Graduate Program Review Survey  
    Alumni  
    UC Davis Alumni Survey 
    Faculty  
    Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey 
    Staff  
    Davis Campus Staff Experience Survey  
    CUCSA Staff Engagement Survey

Final Thoughts

These ideas can help shape how we think about the work:

  • Value statements of support—especially when they lead to action.
  • A single action can be the beginning of a deeper, lasting commitment.
  • Effort matters, even when progress feels incremental.
  • Each of us contributes to building a more inclusive and supportive campus community.
  • Everyone should be part of the conversation.