Principles

The Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) is committed to designing and delivering services and programming that improve education and healthcare for all who call Utah home. We recognize the challenges created by systemic iniquities and that each person has many dimensions of their social identity, including race, gender, ethnicity, ability, income and geography. UETN’s commitment to inclusion, equity and diversity is foundational to its public service mission. Going back to the language of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, we believe “it furthers the general welfare to encourage … expression of diversity and excellence” and that “it is in the public interest to encourage the development of programming that involves creative risks and that addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences.” That means our efforts to reach audiences traditionally unserved by media, healthcare and technology are central to our success and the trust we have with stakeholders and each other.

Policies

UETN staff are employees of the University of Utah, which is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to everyone. The station also meets all applicable Federal Communication Commission, Equal Employment Opportunity and Corporation for Public Broadcasting guidelines for diversity, equity and inclusion. UETN maintains these principles in all employment-related practices and decisions: recruitment, hiring, supervision, promotion, compensation, benefits and termination.

All UETN managers are required to take fair, timely and proportionate action to assure that employment-related practices and decisions are made without discrimination, harassment or prejudicial treatment because of race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, family status or protected veteran's status. If an employee ever feels they cannot speak to their direct supervisor regarding any kind of misconduct, it can be done through the University.

UETN supports the training of staff and managers in equity, inclusion and diversity awareness, as well as job enhancement through attendance at educational training, conferences, seminars and workshops. All employees are required to complete an online training module addressing discrimination and sexual misconduct each year. A representative from the Equal Opportunity Office and University of Utah Human Resources is invited, also each year, to give a presentation educating staff on current diversity and equal opportunity issues. Additional training opportunities are also regularly available to staff through state resources, the University of Utah and public broadcasting affinity groups.

Our Content and Services

We design and deliver content and services to meet community need through ongoing dialogue and collaboration with representatives from throughout our service area, including partners from historically underrepresented groups. Results from these partnerships include the following:

• Access to broadband networking for education, public libraries and telehealth
• Services to enhance healthcare equity and education opportunity
• Culturally appropriate resource collections for educators
• Convening mission-aligned partner organizations to increase effectiveness
• Content that amplifies underrepresented voices
• Tools and support to boost accessibility of online learning, library and healthcare platforms

Our Workforce

UETN’s governance and staff should reflect the diverse make-up of Utah.  We have not reached this goal yet, but we are tracking it based on the employment and governance data available to us as follows:

Reported Metric	Utah Population	UETN Staff FT&PT	UETN Governance	Trend from Previous Year
Female Sex	49.4%	34%	38.4%	closer to Utah population
Disability	22.4%	1.4%	0%	the same as previous year
Not White or Multiple Races/Ethnicities	22.8%	16.5%	0%	further from Utah population

We seek to interview a diverse pool of qualified candidates for all positions, including senior leadership. We work with the University of Utah’s Human Resources Office and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Office to advertise open positions. Open positions are advertised through the University Human Resources website. A University job opportunities bulletin is distributed to community and workforce agencies each week to reach a broad applicant population.

Retaining talent is also important. Examples of how this is accomplished include:

• Diversity training for Board, management and staff
• Conducting performance reviews and pay equity audits with subsequent adjustments
• Providing support for employees to develop skills that could qualify them for career advancement
• Fostering productive engagement through our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Work Group
• Participating in local and national initiatives such as the One Utah Leadership Council, the Public Media Diversity Leaders Initiative and the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)

Employee Programs

We seek to foster a culture in which all our employees may experience a welcoming, inclusive and productive environment. This is accomplished through several initiatives.

• Public Media Learns
• University of Utah Human Resources (HR) Trainings
• Humans of UETN
• Utah Women in Higher Education University of Utah Chapter
• UETN Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Work Group

Action Plan

In the coming year, UETN will:

Equity Goal 1. Broadcast and promote content that represents diverse voices and viewpoints and addresses issues relevant to our community.

Success measure: Viewer feedback and programming metrics

Equity Goal 2. Increase station, community and network capacity to better serve Utahns who have been traditionally marginalized.

Success measure: Partner feedback and engagement metrics

Equity Goal 3. Empower educators to improve the accessibility of their instructional content through UETN-delivered tools such as closed captioning software and professional learning on topics such as universal design.

Success measure: Course participation data and hours captioned

Equity Goal 4. Improve equitable access to digital resources for education, healthcare and economic opportunity to communities throughout Utah.

Success measure: Network connections as compared to the number of schools, distance learning courses and events per year and use of online learning management system as compared to target K-12 population

 

Approved by UETN Board on December 7, 2022