The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health has an important goal: to create a community where all learners, staff, and faculty feel valued, included, and empowered.
Building Community, a fundamental movement and transition in how we approach our working and learning environment, is the school’s climate improvement program. It is both a mindset and an action plan.
Operationally, it is a series of work and strategy teams made up of SMPH community volunteers who work to spark conversation, design resources, host events, and create change. At its core, it is a commitment by everyone in our school to get involved and utilize these opportunities to build a more inclusive, collegial, and respectful community.
Get involved
See results that have been released from the SMPH Community Pulse survey completed by staff (non-faculty) in the school in January 2022. The results will help chart future workplace climate improvement and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the school.
Mistreatment, bias and hate reporting tools
Resources
- Shared Guidelines for Professional Conduct: This document was developed in 2020 by members of the Building Community Shared Understanding Work Team and endorsed by the Building Community Steering Committee. It outlines overarching guidance on the shared responsibility of everyone at SMPH and their partnering institutions to act with the highest levels of respect, integrity and accountability—and according to appropriate ethical and legal standards—in their daily activities inside and outside SMPH.
- Building Community Visual Toolkit: Download the Building Community logos (.png file type is recommended for most digital uses), PowerPoint template, and flyer template.
- Building Community 2018-2023 Strategic Plan (PDF): This five-year strategic plan summarizes how Building Community began and where the program aims to go in the future. One of the plan’s key strengths is how it couples inspiring individual action with institutional process and structural improvements.
- UW School of Medicine and Public Health Presenter’s Guide (PDF): This guide was written by a group of medical students in fall 2019, and endorsed by the Building Community Steering Committee. It was subsequently revised and re-endorsed for the 2020-21 academic year. It is intended to provide suggestions and examples of how to talk about underrepresented identities in medicine.
Additional resources will be added to to this collection on a continual basis.