EMU DEI Grants 

Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) values social justice, community, service, sustainability, and peacemaking. The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) wants to help our campus become even more inclusive, fair, and welcoming for everyone. We believe that all of us—faculty, staff, and students—can create positive change. The Inclusive Excellence Grant Program supports ideas and projects that make our campus more inclusive and promote racial justice.

You don’t have to tackle big, complicated issues. Even small actions can help, and this grant encourages the EMU community to work together in a no blame/no shame environment. We want everyone—students, staff, and faculty—to think of ways we can learn and grow together. Projects funded by this grant will take place during the Fall or Spring semesters.

We are accepting proposals for projects from students, staff, and faculty at EMU. Your project should:

• Bring people together from different cultural backgrounds, perspectives, and roles (like students from different majors, or staff and faculty from different departments).
• Focus on collaboration across different groups on campus.
• Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on our Harrisonburg campus or at our Lancaster and D.C. locations.
• Teach about racism and LGBTQIA+ issues and help build a culture where everyone feels they belong.
• Have a broad impact, benefiting a large part of our community, not just one department or group.

Connecting to our DEI Priorities:

1. Belong Together: Create the circumstances for the emergence of an inclusive climate campus that promotes a safe learning community for all community members and where everyone experiences a sense of belonging. Ensure that EMU’s traditions and symbols reflect the diversity of the broader community. Celebrate and promote our unique identity to strengthen our school spirit and launch new community rituals and celebrations that elevate the diverse cultural assets across all dimensions of the student, staff, faculty, and alumni experiences.
2. Create and Scale Curricular and Co-curricular Experiences that are Reflective and Inclusive: Curricular design, pedagogy, and instructional practices have historically reinforced racist and anti-queer ideals that have prevented the establishment of a community of learners for BIPOC and LGBTQ. The curriculum is the very foundation of a university. We believe systemic change should start with decentering Western, white, and cisgender perspectives across the curriculum in favor of the inclusion of non-Western, non-white, queer perspectives, diverse experiences, and different modes of knowledge.
3. Education, Training, and Employee Development: Provide and support ongoing opportunities for DEI education, training, and programs to students, employees, alumni, and BOT members. Build internal capacity to support change and provide students and employees with the necessary skills to engage with each other in ways that are inclusive and invite open dialogue.
4. Institutional Structures and Policies: Create equitable systems by identifying and eliminating structural barriers within EMU that prevent access to education and an inclusive environment.

• Projects up to $1,200. The exact funding depends on the number of proposals and the available budget.
• Projects that bring lasting change or help EMU better reflect our diverse community.

Applicants are encouraged to develop creative and innovative projects in line with the program objectives listed in the RFP. Examples of possible initiatives include:

• Workshops/training/facilitated discussions on how to be an ally to international students, first-generation students, or other underrepresented groups; create safe spaces; engage with toxic masculinity; decenter whiteness; educate on gender inclusive language; foster religious inclusiveness, heal from past injustices, etc.
• Hosting professional development DEI workshops for students, faculty, and/or staff 
• Art projects such as posters, murals, and tapestries to create spaces of belonging 
• Pop-up museums
• Inclusive pedagogy training to assist with curriculum development and implementation (e.g., queer pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, critical pedagogy, indigenous pedagogies)
• Initiatives that support recruiting and retaining diverse students, staff, and faculty
• Advancing success for underrepresented groups (e.g., graduation, promotion, tenure)
• Photovoice projects
• Archives and collections of the experiences/history of underrepresented groups at EMU
• Advancing disability awareness and equity
• Embedding diversity and inclusiveness into policies, procedures, or other structural aspects of the university that invite students, faculty, and staff to join our community.

• Buying equipment for your project (unless it's just one part of a larger project).
• Projects that have already received a grant for the same purpose, unless you’re asking for a different aspect of the project (for example, first you asked for money for food, now you’re asking for a speaker's stipend).

You’ll need to:

1. Form a team. These grants require that co-leaders (a minimum of 2, but more than 2 are encouraged) collaborate and connect across differences. This entails that the co-leaders must fall into 2 or more of the categories outlined below. Examples include a graduate student collaborating with a staff member, co-leaders from EMU's main campus and the Lancaster site; or faculty leaders from different academic schools. These differences pertain to co-leaders, NOT to the audience or attendees of project events. 

 

Examples of collaboration:
✅ A graduate student working with a faculty member
✅ A staff member and an undergraduate student
✅ A project involving both the Harrisonburg and Lancaster campuses
❌ A student club working only with the department that oversees it

Difference Categories

•   Role- faculty, staff, undergraduate student, graduate student
•   Organizational Unit of Employees- e.g. Department, Academic School
•   Major/Minors of students
•   Race/Ethnicity 
•   Gender/Gender Identity
•   Geographic Campus location- Harrisonburg, Lancaster, Washington DC

1. Submit your proposal using the link on EMU’s DEI website under the Grants tab. Include a detailed budget using the template provided and email to dei@emu.edu.
2.  Refer to the deadline listed on the DEI Grant website.
3.  Email dei@emu.edu with any questions.   

We will choose projects based on how well they:

• Promote personal growth, better relationships, and institutional change.
• Support EMU’s DEI goals.
• Involve collaboration across different groups (like students from different majors, or faculty from different schools).
• Are realistic and well-planned.
• Show creativity and clear writing.
• Use the budget responsibly and provide a detailed plan for sharing results with the EMU community.

 Google application form

Budget Template

Final Report Template

Request for Proposals

We will not disburse grant funds directly to applicants.

How are the grant finances handled?

• You won’t get the money directly. The DEI office will handle payments for things like stipends or speaker fees.
• Stipends: If your project includes a stipend, the DEI office will process it through payroll.
• Guest Speakers: To pay a guest speaker, fill out a payment request form and submit it with their W9.
• Reimbursements: If you spend money on supplies, fill out an expense report and submit your receipts to the DEI office. You’ll either get a check or cash, depending on the amount.

Can I use the grant to buy equipment?

No, you can’t apply for a grant just to buy equipment. The focus of the grant is on projects that create change, not just purchases.

Can I apply for a grant for the same project more than once?

• If it’s the exact same purpose (for example, you got funding for food and are asking again for the same thing), no. Recurring projects need to be included in a department’s budget.
• If it’s a different part of the same project (like asking for funds for a speaker after getting funding for another part), then yes, you can apply.

What does "collaboration across differences" mean?

For your project to be considered, you must work with others who are different from you in some way. This could mean collaborating with people from different departments, majors, geographic locations (e.g., Lancaster or D.C. campuses), races, or gender identities. The idea is to bring together a variety of perspectives to make the project stronger and more inclusive.

Examples of collaboration:

• Examples of collaboration:
  ✅ A graduate student working with a faculty member
  ✅ A staff member and an undergraduate student
  ✅ A project involving both the Harrisonburg and Lancaster campuses
  ❌ A student club working only with the department that oversees it

Difference Categories

•   Role- faculty, staff, undergraduate student, graduate student
•   Organizational Unit of Employees- e.g. Department, Academic School
•   Major/Minors of students
•   Race/Ethnicity 
•   Gender/Gender Identity
•   Geographic Campus location- Harrisonburg, Lancaster, Washington DC

When do I need to finish my project?

• Fall Applicants: Your project should be completed by the end of February, and results shared by the end of Spring semester.
• Spring Applicants: Your project should be done by the end of September, and results shared by the end of Fall semester.

If you need more time, you can request an extension by asking the DEI office at dei@emu.edu.

When do projects need to be completed? 

Projects will take place during two cycles within the academic year.

Spring applicants: Decisions about grant awards will be made in April. Once applicants receive an acceptance letter, they can begin work on their projects. We ask participants to complete the work by late September so that results may be shared with the EMU before the end of the Fall semester. If participants cannot complete the work by the time the final report is due (Sept. 30th), they may request an extension with prior approval.

Fall applicants: Decisions about grant awards will be made in October. Once applicants receive an acceptance letter, they can begin work on their projects. We ask participants to complete the work by late February so that results may be shared with the EMU before the end of the Spring semester. If participants cannot complete the work by the time the final report is due (April 19th), they may request an extension with prior approval.

Note: Exact timelines will vary from cycle to cycle. It is important to consult the RFP for specific due dates.

This program is built on the premise that curriculum is the very foundation of a university, and we believe that the systemic change should start with decentering Western and white perspectives across our curriculum in favor of inclusion of non-Western and non-white perspectives, experiences, and modes of knowledge.

By funding initiatives on diversity and inclusion, the Hertzler-Koshy Faculty Fellowship Grant Program supports the mission of EMU to prepare students “to serve and lead in a global context.” Faculty and students at EMU are agents of change and have the opportunity to impact curricula (graduate, undergraduate, intercultural programs, training) in ways that advance equity and justice.

While this learning and growth may sometimes be uncomfortable, the goal is for us to learn together in a no blame/shame environment that is accessible to everyone. Faculty are encouraged to consider ideas that enhance the curriculum in ways that support a community of learners and provide all EMU students with opportunities to grow, learn, and belong together.

Faculty members who are serving full-time and are passionate about infusing DEI in our curriculum are invited to apply in collaboration with at least one student.

Full-time faculty are eligible to apply for up to two-semester terms with a course reduction (i.e., 3 hours of load per semester). Mini-grants of up to $500 are available to applicants in addition to release time. The total number of awards will depend on the number and quality of the proposals received.

Applicants are encouraged to develop, in collaboration with a student(s), creative and innovative projects in line with the program objectives listed in the RFP. Examples of possible initiatives:

• Mentor/work with students to advance projects that analyze power and identity in systems and cultures through the lenses of anti-racism and anti-oppression to promote justice and equity in the curricula (undergraduate, graduate, intercultural program, non-credit training). 
• Mentor/collaborate with students to examine the stories that shape them, understand their own stories, and recognize the stories that shape their communities and the world. 
• Facilitate with students curricular audits to assess, integrate, and infuse diversity into the curriculum with a specific focus on race, ethnicity, disability, and gender content in the curricula.
• Develop, deliver, facilitate, and evaluate a DEI or antiracist-related training in collaboration with at least one student.
• Develop and pilot DEI/antiracist/sense of belonging evaluation and assessment tools. 
• Advance the implementation of DEI/antiracism/inclusive pedagogy/queer pedagogy/feminist pedagogy/indigenous pedagogy in the curricula (undergraduate, graduate, intercultural programs, training), elevate traditionally marginalized narratives, and identify opportunities where there is a need to diversify the content of courses, programs, and training.

Some important benefits of this program include:

• This program offers participants time and resources to expand their curriculum to be more diverse and inclusive of marginalized narratives. 
• The community of Faculty Fellows gives participants the opportunity to engage in this work in partnership with students in a supportive network of colleagues.
• The projects taken on by these Faculty Fellows will advance the university’s commitment to increasing a sense of belonging for all members of the EMU community. A more diverse and inclusive curriculum will prepare students to become unifying leaders.
• Upon request, the Vice President of DEI will provide letters of documentation to demonstrate efforts by Hertzler-Koshy Faculty fellows to support their annual reviews and/or their rank and tenure process.
• Upon request, the Vice President of DEI will provide a certificate to acknowledge the participation of students in this program as agents of transformational change.

The Hertzler-Koshy Faculty Fellowship Program initiatives and terms are set annually by the Vice President of DEI and the Provost with input from the EMU community. The terms for the program are outlined in the Request for Proposals. Fellowship Program applications will be reviewed by the Faculty Scholarship Committee and the Vice President of DEI.

Post-award reporting and sharing

All applicants selected for funding are required to provide a follow-up report documenting the impact of the program/initiative/event by the set deadline. Awardees will also be responsible for sharing their project and its impacts with the EMU community through a workshop, panel discussion, presentation, art exhibit, and/or other method appropriate for the project/program. Details are provided in the RFP.

Please note the following key dates for the Hertzler-Koshy Faculty Fellowship Grant Program:

An email will be sent out to qualified faculty  Sept. 30, 2023, letting them know that the Request for Proposal (RFP) is open. Application details will have a link to the Faculty Fellowship Moodle Course. Applications should be submitted via the Moodle course by Oct. 31, 2023 by 5p.m.