BRIDGE: Breakthrough Recruitment for Inclusive Diversity Growth and Excellence

Introduction

The BRIDGE initiative: Breakthrough Recruitment for Inclusive Diversity Growth and Excellence is designed as a roadmap to help get us there. BRIDGE is a faculty and staff search best practice guide for inclusive excellence. This program demonstrates our University’s deep appreciation for diversity, inclusion, and equity. With an ever-changing world, our institution must be open to change, able to adapt, and remain innovative in our research, creative, engagement, and administrative activities.

An inclusive excellence mindset, and more specifically an inclusive and equitable approach to the search process, is where we recognize how our biases, experiences, and preconceived notions may impact our ability to effectively recruit, hire, and retain diverse, top talent. Guides like BRIDGE provide one strategy to challenge and address behaviors and decisions that adversely and negatively impact the search and most often marginalized applicants. Fostering inclusive search practices is consistent with our institutional values and ethos that every interaction matters.

Additionally, Nebraska believes in its people and the power of every person. People matter. We understand that a diverse, engaged faculty and staff are critical to our academic community; and therefore, UNL must remain a place where employees feel a sense of belonging in their work and learning. Through BRIDGE, we make an active decision to prioritize inclusive excellence in our faculty and staff recruitment and selection practices and to ensure that every person and every interaction matters.