Note: This site is for reviewing legacy plan of work data from 2007-2011. If you are looking for the current plan of work interface, visit pow.nmsu.edu.

Civil Rights - Affirmative Action and Equal Employment (Hidalgo County)

Plan Goal

Civil Rights compliance by Hidalgo County Cooperative Extension Service is mandated by New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service by federal laws and is directly tied to Extension's receipt of federal funding.

Situation Statement

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that no person on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex or national origin will be excluded from selection, trainings, advancement, and other benefits of employment. Hidalgo County Cooperative Extension Service has the responsibility to provide programming to all residents of Hidalgo County. These Extension programs must be handled in a manner that treats every customer and employee with fairness, equality, and respect. This applies to all aspects of Extension programs including identifying needs, setting priorities, allocating resources, selecting and assigning staff, conducting programs, and receiving feedback. Every person who works for the Hidalgo County Cooperative Extension Service is responsible for civil rights efforts.

Target Audience and Actions

Program participation data will continue to be collected throughout the year to ensure nondiscrimination in program delivery with the correct action taken when noncompliance is documented. For Hidalgo County Extension Service target audiences will include staff they supervise and all residents of their geographic area with specific attention paid to under-served and under-represented audiences.

Short-Term Objectives

Hidalgo County Director forwards on information related to civil rights provided by the specialist from the University and discusses this information with all employees during staff meetings. Those documents will be read by all office personnel and filed in the appropriate civil rights file. The Hidalgo County Cooperative Extension Service Office will adher to all civil rights laws in regards to both programming and employment.

Medium-Term Objectives

Any committee or advisory board created as a function of the Hidalgo County Extension Program will be diverse with respect to gender, ethnicity, and community representation and will be representative of the population in Hidalgo County. Staff of the Hidalgo county extension office with help from the specialist will recieve proper training and know where to locate procedure for handling program and employment complaints from clientele. A nondiscrimination and ADA statement will be used on Extension printed publications, including bulletins, leaflets, circulars, fact sheets, program announcements, newsletters, or any other publications.

Long-Term Objectives

There will be equality, fairness, and respect in the use of Extension work facilities, including support for educators, paraprofessionals, secretarial and support staff. Office quarters and related facilities, supplies, educational materials, electronic technology (computers, telephone, etc.) will be assigned and available to all staff on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Evaluation Plan

Every five years each county and/or Native American Extension office is required to conduct a civil rights review. Civil rights program efforts will be reviewed by a team of trained reviewers representing different program areas and areas of expertise. The evaluation will consist of an examination of the completeness of office civil rights compliance files, discussions on successes and problems in carrying out civil rights compliance and reviewing the importance of the task. Counties, as a team, will establish five-year goals for outreach to underserved audiences within their communities.