Social Justice Programs and Just Administrative Practices

Abstract

Kate Parsons draws on 18 years of administrative involvement in interdisciplinary, social justice programs to offer tips for developing and sustaining more just, effective, and anti-discriminatory administrative practices. While faculty members who support these programs have become adept at creating curricular and cocurricular programs to support and enhance interdisciplinary social justice for their students, relatively little attention is paid to the ways in which faculty relationships with one another inadvertently replicate social injustices, ultimately running counter to the goals of achieving equitable and sustainable faculty participation. Concentrating on three governance components—mission, leadership, and committee composition—Parsons helps faculty members reflect on their own structures, assumptions, and practices, while offering strategies for decreasing faculty and programmatic vulnerability and increasing sustainability.