MI-ACE Subcommittee Toolkit

  • Programming Ideas – Active/Synchronous (curated via ChatGPT)
  • Equal Pay Day Campus Forum: Discuss the national and institutional gender pay gap with HR, DEI office, and faculty leaders. Include local data: “At GVSU, 54% of employees are women — here’s how pay equity is monitored.” Optional student track: “How pay equity in higher ed mirrors the broader workforce.
  • Salary Negotiation Workshops (AAUW “Work Smart” model): Teach negotiation skills, confidence, and market research strategies. Offer separate sessions for (a) staff/faculty and (b) students entering the workforce. Partner with career services or women’s center.
  • Wear Red” Awareness Day + Photo Booth: Symbolic show of solidarity (red = women being “in the red” financially). Coordinate with HR or Student Life to encourage participation, create social media hashtag (e.g., #GVSUPayEquity). Take photos and post them on internal and external channels.
  • Panel: “Closing the Gap in Academia”: Feature female faculty, staff, and administrators discussing their career trajectories and pay equity experiences. Include both instructional and professional staff to show cross-campus relevance.Record for later viewing (bridging to asynchronous category).
  • Interactive Data Exhibit: Make pay equity tangible using visuals or infographics displayed in a central space or online. Show institution’s own pay equity data (if available) or national higher ed stats (e.g., CUPA-HR). Invite visitors to leave sticky-note reflections: “What can we do to close the gap?”
  • Film Screening + Discussion: Pair an Equal Pay–related film (e.g., 9 to 5, On the Basis of Sex, Miss Representation, Equal Means Equal) with a facilitated conversation. Offer as a co-sponsored event between Women’s Studies, HR, and Student Life.
  • “What’s My Value?” Role-Play Activity: Small-group activity where participants practice advocating for pay equity and identifying bias in merit systems. Great for leadership or supervisor development programs.
  • Programming Ideas – Passive/Asynchronous (curated via ChatGPT)
  • Digital Awareness Campaign: Share data visualizations, myths vs. facts, or “Did You Know?” posts leading up to Equal Pay Day. Use email banners, screensavers, intranet slides, or Instagram stories featuring sector-specific stats. Example: “In higher ed, women earn 82¢ for every $1 earned by white men. Learn more ➜ [link].”
  • Equal Pay Resource Hub (Webpage or LMS Module): Curate readings, toolkits, and negotiation resources (AAUW, CUPA-HR, LeanIn, etc.). Host on HR, DEI, or campus women’s center site. Include both staff/faculty and student-focused resources.
  • Pay Gap Infographic Series (Digital Signage): Rotating slides on monitors in dining halls, libraries, HR offices, or academic buildings. Include “Equal Pay Day: March 25, 2025 — Women must work nearly 3 months longer to earn what men did in 2024.”
  • Podcast Playlist or Article Curation: Promote self-paced learning through a themed list (e.g., “5 Podcasts on Pay Equity & Leadership”). Examples: The Double Shift (working women and systemic inequity), Women at Work (Harvard Business Review), Code Switch episode on economic justice, The Indicator from Planet Money episode on the gender pay gap
  • “Invisible Labor” Digital Storyboard: Collect short anonymous stories from employees/faculty about unpaid or unrecognized work. Display digitally (website, slideshow, or Instagram carousel). Reinforces link between pay equity and invisible labor.
  • Email Signature or Banner Campaign: Institutional visibility — faculty and staff add banners like “Equal Pay Day – March 25” with link to resources. Encourages broad participation with minimal time investment.
    Interactive Quiz / Micro-Learning Module: Build awareness through a 5-minute quiz: “How much do you know about the gender pay gap in higher ed?” Can include tailored data and myth-busting (e.g., “Fact or Fiction: Women in faculty roles earn 90% of men’s salaries on average — FALSE.”).
  • StoryMap or Timeline: Asynchronous digital storytelling tool showing the history of Equal Pay legislation, milestones, and progress. Could be created by Gender Studies or Sociology students as a class project.