The O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Indianapolis has been recognized for its work promoting and supporting diversity in research, teaching, and service. The Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration selected O’Neill Indianapolis’ Public Affairs Program as the recipient of the NASPAA 2024 Diversity Award.
“We are honored to receive this distinction from NASPAA,” says O’Neill School Dean Siân Mooney. “O’Neill is proud to have faculty dedicated to addressing real-world social equity challenges through research and education, and that we have a student body that mirrors the diversity of the communities we serve.”
This academic year, 35% of O’Neill Indianapolis’ graduate students identified as nonwhite, up 18% from the previous academic year.
Suzann Lupton, O’Neill Indianapolis’ associate dean of student services and enrollment management, says that increase was no accident. O’Neill developed specific and intentional outreach efforts, targeting students from diverse backgrounds and offering additional scholarships to students from underrepresented minority groups. That’s on top of providing substantial tuition discounts to any its students who pursue an O’Neill master’s degree after earning their bachelor’s degree.
“By seeking out and offering support and scholarships to historically underrepresented students, we not only diversify our classrooms but also enrich our classroom learning experience, ensuring that students both bring and gain insights from diverse perspectives,” adds Lupton.
But O’Neill’s leadership understands that delivering on a promise of diversity means extending those efforts beyond admission rolls. It’s one reason the school has committed to diversifying its faculty and their work as well.
“Not only is it critical that our faculty is as diverse as our student population, but having a diverse faculty also brings a variety of global and local perspectives into public administration and public policy research,” says Mooney.
Among O’Neill Indianapolis’ 24 full-time faculty members, 11 are women, eight are historically marginalized groups, and six come from various countries, representing diverse religious, socioeconomic, and educational backgrounds.
Those perspectives carry over into faculty members’ research as well, bringing in new perspectives and lenses through which they can ask questions, consider results, and pursue areas of study.
In 2024, O’Neill faculty members have addressed issues that impact those from underserved communities around the globe.
Most recently, O’Neill Assistant Professor Nathan Cook and his coauthors published a study on how social inequalities shape climate change efforts in India. The team looked at farmers and how disparities can cause them to be slow to adopt new technologies, like groundwater irrigation systems that could improve productivity, increase food security, and help agricultural households adapt to a changing climate.
Over the summer, O’Neill faculty members also were busy. Professor Doug Noonan and O’Neill Bloomington Associate Professor Joanna Woronkowicz collaborated on a new book focused on examining systems within the arts sector that both perpetuate and resolve inequities.
And, Professor Jerome Dumortier and Assistant Professor Christian Buerger teamed up to study the impact weather has on traffic stops and citations, specifically looking at drivers’ race. They wanted to know whether adverse weather conditions impacted the racial distribution of drivers and the chance of them receiving a citation. Their study found racial distribution of drivers and citation issuance is not constant across weather patterns.
The hope for all of this research is that practitioners will use the information to work toward serving all members of their communities, and that current O’Neill students will use it as a foundation on which to build their careers.
“Diversity among our faculty strengthens our school’s ability to foster an inclusive environment for all while also preparing our students—future public service leaders—to understand and value differences,” Mooney says. “We look forward to continuing our commitment to diversity in every aspect of O’Neill and finding new ways to incorporate it into the important work happening within our classroom, campus, and communities.”
NASPAA is the accrediting organization for hundreds of universities around the world, including the O’Neill School, that offer degrees in public administration, public policy, public affairs, nonprofit, and similar fields.