Demographic Data Collection
Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Reporting
Associate Director for OSU Extension, Dr. Kristopher Elliot, joins OSU Extension Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Dr. Ana Lucia Fonseca, to provide information about the importance of collecting demographic information.
Transcript
Kris Elliot (KE): Hi, I’m Kris Elliot, Associate Director for OSU Extension here with our Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Ana Lu Fonseca.
The purpose of this video is to share some information about why you might be asked to report your demographic information when interacting with an OSU Extension program or service.
Ana Lu Fonseca (ALF): The most important thing we want you to know is that providing your demographic information, such as your race, gender, and ethnicity, is completely voluntary.
Furthermore, if you do chose to provide it, know that it will be treated as confidential information, and stored securely in a protected platform.
KE: Oregon State University is committed to inclusive excellence, and to ensuring equal opportunity for anyone wishing to benefit from our programs and services.
Understanding the ethnicity, race, and gender of our program participants and volunteers helps us monitor our effectiveness, and ensures that we are complying with Civil Rights laws as directed by our federal partner, the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Forestry and Agriculture, or “USDA-NIFA.”
ALF: USDA NIFA compares our participant and volunteer demographics to the public Census data to make sure we’re not missing any groups of people in the communities we serve.
Neither the information someone provides, or their decision not to provide it, is used to determine eligibility or benefits available through participation.
KE: You can learn more about demographic reporting, and the measures we take to keep your information safe, by reading the webpage below, or by reaching out to our office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion or your local program contact.
ALF: Thank you for everything you do to support OSU Extension!
Why do we collect race, ethnicity and gender information?
Oregon State University is committed to inclusive excellence and to ensuring equal opportunity for those wishing to benefit from our programs and services. We invite you to voluntarily disclose your ethnicity, race and gender to help us monitor the effectiveness of our civil rights and inclusive excellence efforts. Neither the information provided, nor the decision not to provide it, will be used to determine eligibility for Extension programs and services or the benefits available through participation.
How do we use this information?
We use this information to assess the groups of people in each of our communities we are serving from our various programs. We can compare this information to the public race, ethnicity and gender census data to help us determine if we are missing groups of people in the communities we serve. We only present this information in aggregate form (counts in a county) and never identifiable to an individual.
How do we protect this information?
We consider your race, ethnicity and gender as confidential information.
- It is not stored directly on your record so it is not visible to most OSU employees.
- We only look at this information in aggregate form (counts in a county) and never identifiable to an individual.
- We use modern and secure methods to encrypt the collection and transmission of your information.
More information can be found in our Privacy Policy.
Thank you for helping OSU Extension to better serve Oregon's communities.
If you have additional questions, you may follow up with Ana Lu Fonseca from our Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.