C. Counselor Education Plan for Recruitment & Retention of Diverse Students

The Counselor Education Department has a goal to increase the diversity of candidates from underrepresented groups that enter our programs and to help them complete their programs of study successfully. Our department values diversity because it generates a multiplicity of ideas and viewpoints, leads to more creative and efficient problem solving, fosters an understanding and acceptance of individuals from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds, and recognizes the contributions that a variety of individuals and groups can make. A diverse group of candidates will ensure that the Counselor Education Department can better serve the needs of our increasingly diverse communities, while also attending to the needs of those communities that are most underserved.

The Counselor Education Department and the College of Education (COE) prohibit discrimination or harassment on the basis of age, disability, national origin, race, color, marriage status, veteran status, religion, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, or in the use of Worker's Compensation, Federal Family Medical Leave Act, or the Oregon Medical Leave Act (see also PSU Prohibited Discrimination & Harassment Policy*).

The University and the COE have a plan in place to promote its efforts to increase candidate diversity, and the Counselor Education department is actively engaged with the following structures within the university and the COE.

The COE has a goal to recruit the most promising candidates who reflect a diverse range of interests, abilities, life experiences, and world-views to enhance the mission of the Counselor Education Department and the COE. Past and current recruitment efforts include two successful “pathway” programs that provide encouragement and financial support to candidates of color interested in careers within the COE programs. Effective recruitment efforts require extensive informal networks with local and national organizations and personal contacts with diverse members of the professional community. The university and the COE have these strategies to recruit diverse candidates:

The Counselor Education Department and the COE are not only committed to recruitment of candidates from diverse and underserved groups, but also in retaining candidates of diverse backgrounds. We work to identify retention problems that have a negative impact on candidate diversity by examining those conditions under which students leave our programs.

One of the most effective variables in retaining minority candidates is having instructors who also come from minority communities and provide recognizable role models for emerging professionals. Candidates of color and those with other diverse identities are also more likely to stay in programs where colleagues and instructors create learning environments characterized by openness and respect. Some students and instructors need assistance in becoming more sensitive to cultural differences and aware of their own biases and prejudices. PSU provides programs with these instructional aims. Programs in place to promote the retention of diverse candidates include:

*Portland State University, Prohibited Discrimination and Harassment Policy http://www.pdx.edu/ogc/sites/www.pdx.edu.ogc/files/Policy_on_Prohibited_Discrimination_and_Harassment.Final_.pdf