Celebrating DHE’s Staff-Led, Equity-Minded Cultural Transformation

Commissioner Santiago reflects on what sets DHE’s equity work apart, including our staff-led journey toward new organizational values.

Commissioner Carlos E. Santiago
November 9, 2021

Massachusetts was designated a Talent, Innovation, and Equity (TIE) state by Lumina Foundation in 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic. That decision brought recognition for and resources to what has become known as the Equity Agenda. We joined Colorado, Oregon, Tennessee, and Virginia as states that declared that equity was their highest priority. The Department of Higher Education is appreciative of the pathbreaking work that these states have embarked upon.

While we unabashedly used and modified some of the approaches we learned from the other states, our work must reflect the reality that we face in Massachusetts. Sometimes I have been asked what is it about the equity work in Massachusetts public higher education that differs from the other aligned states. I would cite three essential elements of the Massachusetts public higher education approach to equity.

• First, we have envisioned the Massachusetts Equity Agenda to encompass all public higher education institutions in the state. Some institutions are far along in this work, while others are at early stages. But their presidents have been evaluated annually, partially based on their institution’s progress on the Equity Agenda since its inception.

• Second, we have been entirely intentional in our focus on racially minoritized students. Our focus is on fixing systems, not students, transforming organizations, not tweaking around the edges.

• Third, we have embarked on a significant professional development and organizational transformation effort co-created by DHE staff to develop a culture of equity-mindedness. An equity-minded organization is better prepared to create the policy scheme needed to serve our historically excluded students and their institutions better.

In keeping with our organizational values, DHE staff meetings now include time for community building and sharing of interests and cultural experiences. The staff recently enjoyed learning how to prepare Caribbean Ceviche in honor of the Commissioner’s Puerto Rican roots.

Considerable effort has gone into the professional development of our staff. Open and honest conversations and the participatory leadership they have engendered are a true testament to the culture we are defining together. We are at a point where the Department has formally endorsed a series of values and behaviors that guide the internal working of the agency. All of this has been accomplished in a relatively short time frame—nine months. I have officially approved a living document subject to periodic review and modification following the staff’s recommendations, if necessary. The process of developing and adopting our values—Equity, Accountability, Community, Empowerment, Intentionality, and Teamwork—reflects our organization’s commitment to growing and learning together as we work towards developing a culture of racial equity. Knowing that sustainable change requires continuous learning, we will offer ongoing professional development to help staff embody these values and behaviors and stay true to this work.

I congratulate the efforts of all staff, thank them for bringing these new principles to fruition, and look forward to our continued work in this area.