Frequently Asked Questions

1. To help improve the coordination, planning, and visibility of the university’s diversity programs, events, resources and research amongst the UW–Madison campus community.
2. To successful map and report out on diversity efforts and resources on campus.

UW–Madison faculty, staff, and students with active NetID’s.

Visit Submit Initiative and log in with your NetID. Information needed to submit an initiative is found here: https://diversityinventory.wisc.edu/what-you-need-to-submit-an-initiative/

Updates to initiatives from the prior fiscal year can be made until the end of the current fiscal year. For example, in the current fiscal year (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020; FY20) you will be submitting initiatives for the previous fiscal year (July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019; FY19) and will have until the end of the current fiscal year, June 30th, to make updates to your initiatives.

The reporting period is the previous fiscal year. So, for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020; FY 19) you will be reporting initiatives for the previous fiscal year (July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019; FY19).

Only you and administrators can view an initiative you created.

For an initiative that is in-progress, only you, the initiative creator, users in same division, department and unit, and administrators can view it.

An initiative that has been submitted can be viewed by anyone. However, users outside of UW–Madison, and those with a guest NetID, will only be able to view Background, Logistics, Contacts, Departments, Sponsors, and Goals information.

Currently, the database has the capacity to collect information only.

Any diversity related program, activity, resource, or research aimed at improving the coordination, planning, and visibility of activities related to diversity, inclusion, and climate.

A program is an organized system with staffing, a budget, and a plan of academic or non-academic activities that are done in order to achieve a specific result (i.e., diversity) for students, faculty, or staff. Examples of a program include: American Indian Student Cultural Center, Beyond the Game, Black Male Intergenerational Leadership Summit, Creating Community, Delta Bridging the Achievement Gap Project, Diversity, Community Building & Intergroup Relations Working Group (DCBIWG), Diversity Dialogues, Faculty Strategic Hiring Initiative and Guidelines for Ensuring Faculty Diversity, Intercultural Dialogues, Strategic Diversity Initiative Grants, and Theater for Cultural & Social Awareness.

An event is a social, educational, or community occasion or activity that can be a one-time or reoccurring in occurrence. Examples of an event include: Diversity Forum, Pow-wow, Native November and Black History month.

“[A] systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. Activities which meet this definition constitute research for purposes of this policy, whether or not they are conducted or supported under a program which is considered research for other purposes.” (federal definition of research: https://kb.wisc.edu/hsirbs/33386)

Services that are designed to help our students, faculty, and staff become successful and empower them to reach their educational and professional goals. Examples of support services include: Peer Mentoring, Tutoring and Training.

STEM is an acronym for four specific disciplines—Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

No, faculty, staff, and student employees are able to submit initiatives.

The Grant Funding System (GFS), in the Office of the Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer (OVPCDO) and the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement (DDEEA), is a grant that provides small award allocations to support innovative projects. Such efforts will demonstrate the ability to build our institutional capacity in support of a diverse, inclusive, and respectful environment for all. Examples of capacity-building activities include the development and dissemination of knowledge on race, ethnicity, culture and indigeneity through research, teaching, and performance.

Full Time Equivalent or FTE is a measurement for the number of staff assigned to a project.

A staff member working full time for a full year is typically considered to have a 65-70% productivity rate, allowing for the remaining time to account for various forms of annual leave (e.g., vacations, etc.) and for organizational responsibilities (e.g., departmental meetings, training, etc.)

A person assigned to the project full-time for a year would be equivalent to 1.0 FTE and half-time would be 0.5 FTE, etc. A project with 3 staff assigned full time for a year has 3.0 FTE

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You can find additional information on the Resources page.

Report misuse of the database by emailing the administrator.

No, 101, 402, etc.- budget funds.

Yes, if it is a new event.