I. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategic Plan: Overview
Selected text from President’s Diversity Charge:
Goals: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:
Diversity: We commit to increasing diversity, which is expressed in myriad forms, including race and ethnicity, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, language, culture, national origin, religious commitments, age, (dis)ability status, and political perspective.
Equity: We commit to working actively to challenge and respond to bias, harassment, and discrimination. We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status.
Inclusion: We commit to pursuing deliberate efforts to ensure that our campus is a place where differences are welcomed, different perspectives are respectfully heard and where every individual feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. We know that by building a critical mass of diverse groups on campus and creating a vibrant climate of inclusiveness, we can more effectively leverage the resources of diversity to advance our collective capabilities.
Core Values of Academic Innovation (AI) –
To shape the future of learning and redefine public residential education at a 21st century research university by unlocking new opportunities and enabling personalized, engaged, and lifelong learning for the U-M community and learners around the world.
We intend to help create a climate of diversity, equity, and inclusion in order to improve organizational culture, recruitment/retention, and to advance our mission.
We strive to be an organization that not only celebrates diversity, but one that fosters success for students of all ages, academic, ethnic, and social backgrounds.
We know that with our outreach across campus, the community, and the world, we have the opportunity to change lives in significant ways by:
- Attracting diverse global learners to U-M through platform-based courses and offerings and, in so doing, advance diversity of U-M residential community. Increasing active participation of those who have been traditionally underserved and underrepresented in higher education. Increasing engagement with global learners representing the widest possible range of global perspectives.
- Leveraging experimentation with digital pedagogy and learning analytics to create more inclusive and universally accessible learning environments for the U-M community and global learners around the world.
- Increasing access to high quality educational opportunities and resources to the broadest possible range of learners.
- Attracting diverse faculty innovators to partner in the design and creation of new academic innovation initiatives.
- Partnering with external agencies and organizations to advance research and personalized learning experimentation that leads to improved learner preparation and increased participation, with particular attention to individuals from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented and underserved in higher education, including women, members of racial and ethnic groups, persons with disabilities, and persons with low socio-economic status.
II. Implementation Highlights and Planning Process Used
Planning Lead(s) – Kathleen Bauer, Amy Homkes-Hayes, Reggie Plahta, and Camille Ulrich
Note: The FY19 planning team for AI is Rachel Niemer*, Cy Abdelnour, Amy Homkes-Hayes, and Keesa Johnson Muhammad. (*Lead)
Planning Team – All AI staff
Planning Process Summary
- We held an all-staff meeting to review our climate survey and to brainstorm ideas to work on in FY19.
- The list of projects for FY19 was sent to staff with a request that each individual volunteer for one (or more) to work on.
- Each project group met, discussed goals, and set measures for success.
III. Data and Analysis: Key Findings
We again reviewed the most recent Human Capital Report (Employee Profile by Career Family) for our unit (attached) to compare to the last three reports. In addition, other measures were taken as below:
- We have learners from 195 UN recognized countries that have enrolled in our MOOCs
- 46,752of our survey respondents perceive themselves as being below the median socio-economic level of society
- 15,401 survey respondents taking our courses are unemployed and looking for work
- 35,328 respondents expect to that the courses they’re taking will help them change jobs
- We have over 6,713,045all time enrollments across our courses
- 04% survey respondents identify as alumni of U-M
- Average age of our learners is 31.6, with responses from 7-93 years old
- 15,283 respondents expect to perform better at work
IV. Strategic Objectives, Measures of Success and Action Plans*
*All strategic objectives and related actions will be pursued in accordance with the law and University policy.
OVERVIEW
As mentioned before, we believe AI has the opportunity to become an international leader in the areas of diversity, equity, & inclusion (DE&I) as it relates to educational opportunity and openness. With our worldwide reach, we can create materials that will put UM solidly in the forefront of change. (We are already leading the way with accessibility to our materials.) We imagine that other higher educational institutions will reach out to us asking to use our materials and we welcome the chance to share our knowledge.
Years one and two were spent hiring a number of new staff. New staff members are brought up-to-speed on DE&I as quickly as possible. We believe that we will have a proper footing after 2-3 years of operation to do another, unit-based, climate survey and will include that in our plan for this year.
We will follow UM’s guidelines as stated in Standard Practice Guide 201.08 “Grievance Procedure and Dispute Resolution,” if there are issues that need resolution.
V. Goal-Related Metrics
We will continue to collect data (metrics) on the composition of our staff, various climate survey indicators, as well as the analytics associated with our MOOC learners (see Section III above). In particular, the demographics we will track include
- Headcount
- Race/ethnicity
- Sex
- Age (Generation cohort)
Key climate perception variables we will track include
- Satisfaction with unit climate/environment in work unit
- Assessment of semantic aspects of the general climate in work unit
- Assessment of semantic aspects of the DEI climate in work unit
- Feeling valued in work unit
- Feeling of belongingness in work unit
- Assessment of work unit commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Perceptions of equal opportunity for success in work unit
- Feeling able to perform up to full potential in work unit
- Feelings of professional growth in work unit
- Feelings of discrimination in work unit
VI. Action Planning Tables with Details and Accountabilities
See the Attached Appendix.
VII. Plans for Supporting, Tracking and Updating the Strategic Plan
The Unit DE&I Lead(s) will:
- Hold regular check-in meetings with volunteers for the various tasks.
- Provide DE&I updates at all AI staff meetings.
- Gather data measures annually (see Section III above).
- Continue to update/adjust this report as needed, but no less than annually.
- Report on our successes and continue to work to improve our challenges.