Spotlights

During the past three years, representatives from the Center for Academic Innovation, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, the College of Literature, Science & the Arts, the Marsal Family School of Education and Michigan Engineering launched the Assessment Toolkit Initiative. The overarching goal of this initiative is to help support a more equitable campus by comparing outcome disparities in course-related and other contexts across student identity groups, and then making those results available to university leaders.

ATI has produced two customizable reports, each based on five years of enrollment and outcomes data, that reveal patterns in student outcomes. Originally developed by the Foundational Course Initiative at CRLT, the Course Equity Report shows these data at the level of a single course, while the Major/Department Equity Report reveals outcomes and patterns across a collection of courses. Explorable through a series of rich visualizations, these reports make it possible to identify potential course and/or curricular changes that could address any inequities. As part of DEI 2.0, the initiative will:

• Share this work more broadly with the U-M community
• Highlight opportunities for stakeholders to explore curricular experiences through an equity lens
• Continue iterating the reports to create more effective tools and foster a more equitable campus

Contact assessment-toolkit@umich.edu for more information.

As Taubman College prepares to welcome the most diverse cohort of students in its history, the need to create an inclusive and adaptable curriculum to support their transition has never been more urgent. To achieve that goal, we are examining—and challenging—dominant perspectives while valuing cultural experiences and ways of knowing that have been marginalized in the discipline in the past.

The College is currently approaching curriculum reform in a myriad of ways:

• De-emphasizing the singular Western historical narratives of design education
• Centering the global South and historically marginalized populations in particular
• Performing a thorough equity analysis of our planning program’s structural requirements to ensure that all capstone projects maximize impacts for underserved and historically disenfranchised communities
• Collaborating with the African Studies Center (ASC) to leverage the UMAPS program in AY24-25 and facilitate the hosting of a promising African scholar
• Continuing to refine and expand an annual tuition framework that guarantees student-centered adaptability, inclusivity and fairness, thus enabling broader access to our comprehensive array of learning opportunities across programs

This includes all of the College’s academic units as well as Dean’s Office service units and undergraduate education. Due to the scope and complexity of LSA, local DEI plans will be generated over a two-year period. In AY 2023-24, units will evaluate their infrastructure for DEI work and determine the specific needs that inform their DEI goals.

All units will prepare their three-year local DEI plans during AY 2024-25 and will enact those plans from 2025-28. Each individual plan will focus on impactful goals, and every unit will present yearly progress reports. During 2023-25, as the units prepare to implement this strategic objective, LSA’s Office of DEI will support their efforts with resources, training and consultation.

The School of Nursing has been awarded over 1.8 million dollars by the Health Resources and Services Administration Nursing Workforce Diversity Grant Program and the Towsley Foundation to fund the EPIC (Empower, Practice, Inspire, Cultivate) Pathways Nursing Health Equity Scholars Program. First-year outcomes suggest that this health- and academic equity-focused program dramatically improves educational access for under-resourced and economically disadvantaged transfer students.

During DEI 2.0, EPIC Pathways will provide need-based scholarships and stipends to as many as 70 BSN students. The program will also offer undergraduate nursing students:

• Weekly peer-facilitated learning circles for science and math courses
• Monthly academic skills workshops
• Career development resources
• Guided research opportunities with faculty
• Professional memberships
• Access to student/faculty/staff Zoom sessions with national and global health equity leaders

Throughout DEI 2.0, the EPIC Pathways team will also partner with community and university organizations to develop an outreach strategy for supporting K-12 youth and high school graduates interested in a nursing career.

Many people are first introduced to the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design through its digital resources. Whether they visit the website, view a social media post or receive electronic files and correspondence, it is crucial that everyone who encounters our school is able to fully access and engage with us. It is in this spirit that Stamps is now conducting a thorough accessibility assessment of its digital assets, analyzing every service and feature—from alt text (focused on setting unit-wide ALT Text standards) and captions (included for all video content produced) to color contrast and font sizes and types.

Once a baseline has been established, the school’s marketing and communications team will make any necessary adjustments to update all current digital assets. As a final step, we will develop a digital accessibility guide as well as template materials for school-wide use by faculty and staff.

Historically, the collections, programming, staff and visitorship at U.S. art museums have not reflected the diversity of their local communities. More than 80% of artists represented in the collections of major U.S. museums are white, and more than 85% are male. Further, the majority of art museum employees are white. UMMA is no different. During DEI 2.0, UMMA has a powerful opportunity, and obligation, to reimagine art museums in a way that revitalizes the meaning, purpose and potential of a collection through installations that question global narratives of history and art history; expose colonial histories; reevaluate the race and gender of artists shown on our walls; and explore the complex role visual culture plays in our world.

To achieve these goals, the museum is:

• Using exhibition and program evaluation tools aligned with the UMMA Strategic Plan and Commitment to Anti-Racist Action
• Conducting an accessibility review of websites and web resources
• Continuing to expand open gallery hours
• Developing events that serve the diverse needs of UMMA’s many communities
• Deploying strategies and products that increase accommodation and accessibility for all museum visitors
• Prioritizing the engagement of Title I and otherwise underserved K-12 school communities

To achieve this objective, OVPR will:

• Evaluate Research Catalyst and Innovation (RCI) Themes focusing on anti-racism and emerging topics
• Integrate DEI principles more actively into RCI theme areas biennially
• Prioritize equitable forecasting of innovative areas of research, scholarship, and creative practice to strategically support

The Office will also collaborate with Research Associate Deans and DEI Leads to explore research-related goals from the DEI 2.0 strategic plans across schools, colleges and units. The goal will be to determine optimal strategies for offering targeted support. Additionally, OVPR will develop a comprehensive data system to assess funding and research domain clusters for broadly diverse faculty groups. This system will generate valuable insights into the scholarly landscape and, more importantly, will serve as a guide to maximizing the effectiveness of strategic support for collaboration and innovation.

The School of Public Health understands the vital importance of our graduates’ ability to contribute in positive ways to health equity efforts. For that reason, we have made it our goal to integrate DEI into our curriculum via frameworks such as equity-focused teaching, accessible design and instruction, anti-racist pedagogy and others. These equity-focused approaches will exert a positive impact on the classroom experiences of both students and instructors. They will also help prepare our students to better recognize and meet the public health challenges of today and tomorrow. Implementing this goal will involve a wide range of activities, including providing ongoing training opportunities for faculty and GSIs, integrating DEI-focused questions into course evaluations, and making DEI a core component of curriculum review and revision in the School.

This initiative is expected to attract a diverse array of students across socio-economic statuses and demographics. Continuing CEW’s tradition of unit partnerships, a task force is being established to set priorities for the work and its goals. Currently, the group includes representatives from the Office of Financial Aid, Wolverine Wellness, Student Life, LSA, SSW, Pharmacy, Wolverine Support Network (CAPS), the Office of the Provost and the U-M Center for Innovation in Detroit. The task force will be guided by a financial therapist, with faculty from the Ross School of Business providing additional support.

The Division of Public Safety and Security Training and Education Center (D-TEC) was established to provide training and professional development programs for DPSS and university staff, local public officials and community members. From content development to program facilitation, the Center works to assure a high level of inclusivity in its training and learning opportunities.

During DEI 2.0, D-TEC will continue to leverage DEI initiatives such as its current partnership with Spectrum Center and Academic Innovation. The Center will also utilize The Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) community guidelines during training and educational sessions to promote inclusivity and assure that all learning environments are safe spaces.

The holistic integration of DEI and D-TEC will ensure a more systemic approach to cultivating inclusivity and equity in all service sectors while placing an emphasis on operational accountability across DPSS. In addition, DEI goals and objectives will be linked to the performance review process. Using the Center as a major hub for modeling and facilitating DEI will also strengthen the academic enterprise through interactions with those conducting scholarly research on related topics.

Building on prior work within its Undergraduate Education Division—most notably an inclusive teaching website and anti-racism faculty engagement workshops—LSA will continue to strengthen faculty learning in these areas. In Year One, the College will launch a new committee to tackle Equity-Minded Practice/Pedagogy (including the website) and develop an infrastructure for where this work will live. To reinforce ongoing efforts of the website team, LSA will promote the materials on equity-minded teaching currently on its Inclusive Teaching website while also rebranding the website to emphasize teaching for equity. Finally, the College will partner with the SEISMIC NSF learning community project planned for 2023-24 to develop a faculty learning community model that could be piloted in the second year of DEI 2.0.

This action item builds on the assessment of DEI 1.0. It also responds to findings from both the 2021 U-M Campus Climate Survey report and feedback from faculty and student focus groups that highlighted the need to increase DEI competencies among faculty.

In AY 23-24, the Ford School AY 23-24 will offer curricular and co-curricular courses and events that explicitly focus on issues related to race, racism, and racial justice within the policy landscape. These include:

Curricular Offerings

PubPol 475/750: Racial Foundations of Public Policy

PubPol 475/750: U.S./Latinx Policy Perspectives

PubPol 475/750: Race & Urban Policy

PubPol 475/750: Race, Technology & Public Policy

Co-Curricular Offerings

• CRJ’s Racial Foundations of Public Policy - a fall speaker series focused on the historical roots and impact of race in shaping public policy as both a disciplinary field and a course of action
• CRJ’s Racial Justice Reading Circles - winter-term interdisciplinary gatherings of graduate students, post-docs, faculty and research staff who collectively explore a topic relevant to the study of race, (anti)racism and racial justice
• CRJ’s Racial Justice in Practice Workshop Series – offering students, faculty, staff and U-M community partners tools, strategies and resources to enhance their work around advancing racial equity
• CRJ’s Masterclass in Activism Series - a biannual event series in which noted activists and thought leaders speak on their activism journeys