Leading the Future: Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Business Education

Sponsored by The SUNY Business School Deans
Support By

                                                                                SUNY Center for Professional Development

Understanding DEI in the Business Curriculum
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Session One: Introducing DEI in the Classroom - 1:05 pm - 2:00 pm

Moderators: Shalei Simms, Acting Dean, School of Business, SUNY Old Westbury
Title: DEI in the Business School Curriculum: Questions Raised from our ‘DEI in the Introduction to Business Class’s Initiative

Presenter: Jim Quinn, Lecturer, School of Business, SUNY Geneseo
Presenter: Mary Ellen Zuckerman, Dean, School of Business, SUNY Geneseo

Details: Business schools are seeking the best ways to incorporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) content into the curriculum. We launched an initiative in Fall 2021 that involved our incoming students by creating DEI content and activities in our new Introduction to Business class. We drew on expertise of a corporate partner as well as of our campus’s VP for Diversity. We obtained quantitative and qualitative information from students about the content. This experience provides a framework for discussion of a variety of questions about how to effectively bring DEI awareness and content into the business curriculum.

Title: DEI in Economics and Business Education: Classroom Practice

Presenter: Dr. Cynthia Harter, Eastern Kentucky University, College of Business, Director, EKU Center for Economic Education
Presenter: Dr. Xu Zhang, Associate Professor of Economics & Chair of the Economics Department, Farmingdale State College
Presenter: Dr. Nanda Viswanathan, Assistant Dean School of Business, Chair of Business Management & Professor of Marketing, Farmingdale State College
Presenter: Dr. Richard Vogel, Dean, School of Business, Professor of Economics, Farmingdale State College 

Details: Recent research in Economics education focused attention on how diversity, equity and inclusion were brought into the classroom. The results of the 2020 Quinquennial National Survey on Economic Education, a survey that has been conducted every five years since 1995 found that diversity and inclusion was almost never addressed in the vast majority of introductory or higher-level economics courses. Dr. Cynthia Harter, one of the economists overseeing the administration of the survey, and the co-author of several recent publications reporting the results of the survey (see Asarta, Chambers and Harter, 2021; Harter, Chambers and Asarta, 2021) discusses the results of the 2020 Quinquennial Survey, particularly on the issue of DEI in economics education. Dr. Xu Zhang discusses how she introduces DEI into two of her Economics courses, one in Labor Economics and the other on Gender Economics. Additionally she discusses how other members of the Farmingdale Economics department are introducing DEI into their classroom instruction. Dr. Nanda Viswanathan, Assistant Dean and Chair of the Farmingdale Business Management department then presents an overview of how DEI is being addressed in the school’s Business curriculum.


Session Two: DEI Related Projects - 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Moderators: Shannon Maher, Interim Dean, Jay and Patty Baker School of Business and Technology, Fashion Institute of Technology
Title: Developing New Products for Individuals with Disabilities

Presenter: Eduardo Millet, Assistant Professor, School of Business, SUNY New Paltz

Details: Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) integrates cultural content and awareness to enhance achievement for all students (Ginsberg & Wlodkowski, 2009). One of the pillars of CRT is the development of a positive attitude towards learning through personal relevance and choice. This session presents a classroom exercise that creates awareness of the disadvantages that individuals face when living with disability and the potential of developing inclusive products.

Disabled people find difficult to live independently and participate in their communities on an equal basis. The social model of disability develops the idea of “material barriers” and “material inequalities” to explain the disadvantages that individuals face when living with disability. Using the idea of “removing barriers”, students are challenged to create a new product or service that eliminates a “material barrier” of the life of disabled individuals.

Attendees to this session will learn how to use the in-class activity “Removing Barriers with Inclusive New Product Development” followed by an open forum on the following questions: What is different about the disability marketplace? What are the opportunities for instructor to promote a more universally inclusive marketplace? What content and activities could help student to develop a better, universally inclusive marketplace in the future?

Title: Unconscious Bias: Creatively Embedding DEI in Business Courses

Presenter: Avan Jassawalla, Professor, School of Business, SUNY Geneseo

Details: As organizations renew their commitment to increasing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), business schools today are called to innovate curriculums and better prepare students for future jobs and leadership roles. While instructors may agree that such innovation is necessary, implementing changes in their classes and adding to the subject matter they already need to cover can challenge even the best intents. This presentation may spark some new thinking in this regard by describing a brief experiential learning exercise used to increase students’ understanding of “Unconscious Bias” while integrating it with discussions of existing course concepts. The exercise, conducted in a Leadership in Organizations course, aims to help students: (a) gain new knowledge about types of “unconscious bias,” (b) examine their own biases, (c) recognize the challenges that unconscious biases pose for leaders and (d) discuss ways to avoid/overcome unconscious bias, with mindful improvements in “self-awareness” and “empathy,” key components of Emotional Intelligence which is an important topic in the course.

Session Three: Attracting Students of Color to Business Education - 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Moderators: Mary Ellen Zuckerman, Dean, School of Business, SUNY Geneseo
Title: Increasing Minority Students in the Accounting and Finance Profession by Increasing the Representation of Minority Students in Accounting and Finance Programs in SUNY

Presenter: Dr. Aida Sy, Assistant Professor, Business Management Department, School of Business, Farmingdale State College

Details: The panel will focus on the increase of minority students in accounting and finance programs in SUNY. Its purpose is to show the lack and the under-representation of Black, Latino, and Muslim students in accounting and finance programs compared to other SUNY programs. This panel will be concerned with finding the ways of attracting more students. The panel will propose that SUNY starts recruiting minority students from High Schools and Communities programs and bring them into accounting and finance programs. The panel will also discuss the many well-paid jobs opportunities in Accounting and Finance careers.