Diversity and Inclusion Master Plan

The means by which healthcare issues emerge changes constantly as demographics, preferences, and values shift. To effectively and innovatively devise solutions in a multicultural society, it is essential that healthcare problems be discussed following a multicultural approach and include a wide range of perspectives. While diversity is a reflection of a balanced organization, we believe that fostering equitable representation and inclusion should characterize the active intentional engagement of our organization’s diverse groups by constructing an open dialogue. Equity goes a step further and ensures that the diverse voices have equivalent weight on our organization matters regardless of historical racial/group predictability and disproportionality. Building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community of faculty, students, and staff is at the heart of the College’s mission to advance eye care through education, research and patient care. As part of the College’s Strategic Plan, Creating a Legacy of Leadership , SUNY Optometry clearly states its shared value of “service to diverse communities , ” with the explicit goal of “making its programs broadly acces sible to all populations.” Strategic Goal IX further specifies, “ To Enroll a highly qualified and diverse student body, ” and is targeted specifically at shaping a student body that is reflective of the communities we serve. SUNY Optometry is fortunate to belong to a forward thinking system of 63 colleges and universities campuses that have diversity, inclusion and equity at the forefront of its mission. The SUNY System has the bold goal of becoming “ the most diverse university system in the country . ” The initiative to develop this strategic plan was in part fueled by a system-wide approach to promote the issues of diversity and inclusion created to support the SUNY Board of Trustee’s Diversity, Equity , and Inclusion Policy. The Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) and its members have also embraced the concept of diversity in optometric education and care. In June 2008, ASCO released its Guidelines for Culturally Competent Eye and Vision Care. These guidelines are available on the ASCO website and educators, care providers and students are encouraged to use these guidelines in their practices. The Cultural Competency Curriculum Guidelines Subcommittee of the ASCO Diversity and Cultural Competency Committee has worked to ensure that the guidelines are incorporated into the curriculum of the ASCO’s member schools. As a result of this initiative, members of the Subcommittee launched the Cultural Competency Guidelines Implementation Workshops and visited campuses across the country, including SUNY Optometry, to educate faculty and staff on the proposed guidelines. SUNY Optometry bases its efforts in increasing educational access to diverse groups following the same premises as those outlined in ASCO’s guidelines : “(1) Greater diversity among health professionals is associated with improved access to care for our diverse society, greater patient choice and satisfaction, better patient-provider communication, and better educational experiences for all students, which will prepare them for the diverse communities they will serve in practice, (2) Diversity is good for optometric education and the profession, and (3) It is the right thing to do.”

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