NACE’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement

OUR COMMITMENT

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) believes in a world that is inclusive in approach and where equal opportunities and equitable outcomes exist for all. The NACE community is committed to developing and supporting a robustly diverse, equitable, and inclusive community, where all members create and feel a sense of belonging. Through our collective deliberate efforts, NACE provides a basis for social justice. As the voice of professionals focused on the development and employment of the college-educated, it is critical for NACE to be explicit in the expression of our collective drive toward these ideals.

Valuing the diversity of organizations serves to engage a broad range, both in size and scope, of colleges and employers that are represented by, but not limited, to:

• Geographic location, urban, rural, and suburban communities;
• Government, religious, public, private, for-profit and non-profit organizations;
• Two-year, four-year, graduate, and professional schools.

HOW NACE ENACTS ITS COMMITMENT

The drive toward diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and social justice is an ongoing process and requires us to identify and address both unintended/intended and visible/invisible barriers arising from bias, discrimination, racism, and organizational structures that support such attitudes and actions. To create the desired impact, NACE:

• Champions its members’ individual and organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to advance all facets of their work environment, as well as its own.
• Facilitates the exchange of diverse perspectives of those employed by our member organizations.
• Embraces and derives value from the variety of views that diverse organizations and individuals bring to achieve inclusive excellence in all that we do.
• Implements initiatives that support diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of our collective endeavors as well as creates a supportive learning environment that encompasses communication of diverse perspectives, experiences, and realities.
• Makes concerted efforts to conduct outreach and engage individuals representing such organizations for service on the NACE Board, committees, and task forces, and in activities.
• Establishes inclusive and equitable practices for all its members, and draws on their varied strengths and perspectives. Our members’ unique characteristics include, but are not limited, to:
  • Ethnicity, race, culture; sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression; age; differences in ability; immigration status, nationality, national origin; education; socio-economic status; family structure; military/veteran status; religious/non-religious beliefs; and local, state, nationally recognized groups/organizations.

HOW MEMBERS ENACT THIS COMMITMENT

As NACE organizational members engage individually in the career development and/or recruitment of the new and future workforce, the association’s core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion will be purposefully reflected in the following expectations and actions:

• To include individuals and groups that reflect diverse individual and organizational values and characteristics.
  • NACE members are encouraged to support diverse perspectives and ideas by treating others fairly. Members show respect for individual, cultural, and other identity-based differences while valuing and acknowledging unique skills and experiences.
• To consciously provide and engage in strategic educational and experiential opportunities to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion competence.
  • NACE members advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion practices as a competency in the development and implementation of all recruiting and professional development programs. Members raise awareness and knowledge among their constituents by providing opportunities to increase the value and significant impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion among all stakeholders.
• To intentionally contribute in numerous ways and within a broad range of contexts to create an increasingly diverse workforce and establish equitable and inclusive organizational practices.
  • NACE members recognize, incorporate, and value diversity as opportunities to learn and gain valuable insights by working together to advance our common global ideals. Members promote open dialogue and active listening to establish inclusion as an organizational hallmark.

Definitions

NACE offers the definitions below to clarify its intent to include all individual and organizational members in ways that enable them to feel a sense of belonging to our community.

Access refers to the ability to approach, reach, obtain, use, communicate, understand, enter, or carry out life activities. Accessibility is an actionable commitment to reducing or eliminating barriers that include, but are not limited to, economic, socio-cultural, and physical challenges that limit participation in life activities. Accessibility requires thoughtful intentionality in the design, implementation, and maintenance of facilities, information, communication technology, programs, and services so that all people, including people with disabilities, can fully and independently participate.

Anti-Racism is the practice of recognizing and actively opposing racism in society with the goal to promote racial equity.

Belonging refers to the perceived support, feeling of connectedness, and experience of community among peers and colleagues within the association. Belonging is a process of building a foundation through diversity, equity, and inclusive practices that cultivates the cornerstone of engagement in our community.

Diversity refers to group social differences such as race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual-orientation, gender preferences, country of origin, dis/ability, cultural, political, religious, or other group affiliations.

Equity means acknowledging and making adjustments to address the consequences of a long history of prejudice and discriminatory treatment that continues and has a negative impact on Black, Brown, Indigenous, and marginalized communities. (See an illustration of this concept.)

Inclusive practices are those that include an active, intentional, meaningful, and equitable engagement across the diversity of our NACE community. Recognizing our diversity while meaningfully engaging it facilitates greater awareness, knowledge, understanding of the complex ways individuals engage within systems and institutions. Building these skills and abilities among individual members will begin to address past injustices and lay a strong foundation for equitable success for our individuals and organizations, and, as a consequence, our nation and the global communities where we work.

Social justice has several elements that affect many areas of public policy and public administration; it is fair treatment of all people in a society, including respect for the rights of people who have been marginalized and the equitable distribution of resources among members of a community; it is fairness manifested in society through healthcare, gender equality, reproductive rights, education, employment, and voting; and it imposes personal responsibility to collaborate with others to design and continually perfect institutions as tools for personal and social development.