Questions
Q: Can you provide an overview of DEI at U-M & SEAS?
A: DEI at the University of Michigan began a number of years ago. There is a central DEI unit within the Office of the Provost and each unit of campus has DEI leads. The current DEI lead for SEAS is the DEI Director. SEAS is implementing its current five year DEI Plan and is expanding into the next five year plan (2021 to 2026). DEI is always in process as we work to understand a changing landscape. We are constantly working to enhance our internal and external strengths that we describe below.
Q: How are diversity, equity, and inclusion acted on within the program outside of policies, etc.?
A: See below for different perspectives on DEI at SEAS.
From a community perspective:
- We have a number of different celebrations throughout the year (for example: Black History Month, Women's History Month) as well as other get-togethers where students can meet each other and understand different perspectives (Solstice celebration, orientation, etc.)
From a student perspective:
- We have affinity groups that meet periodically to discuss ways to advance professional and personal development. There are affinity groups for LGBTQIA2S+, first-generation students, SEAS parents, and women of color, among other identities.
- We celebrate a number of different cultural activities and holidays (for example: Diwali and Dia de los Muertos).
- We have a number of seminars and speaker series on related topics (for example: the Lunchtime Lectures: Justice Agendas for Confronting Environmental Crisis).
- Town halls and designated safe-spaces to talk and build community after traumatic events, like the 2016 presidential election and hate-motivated incidents affecting the U-M community.
- Demonstrations of solidarity with student groups by other groups at SEAS, like staff and faculty. For example, the SEAS Student Center has provided support for international students during the previous Administration’s multiple changes to USCIS and Department of Homeland Security policy and amidst increased ICE activity in Ann Arbor; faculty and staff have supported and voiced solidarity with students during the Fall 2020 strike by the Graduate Employees Organization at U-M.
From a faculty perspective:
- Faculty participate in a number of different trainings offered across campus. U-M’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) provides a wide array of resources. The U-M ADVANCE Program trains faculty and staff in equitable hiring practices. There are also trainings available through the Edward Ginsberg Center, the Center for the Education of Women, and the National Center for Institutional Diversity, among many other entities. There are several in-house trainings available, for instance, anti-racist pedagogies. Finally, SEAS arranges for periodic in-house trainings on subjects like inclusive teaching and anti-racist pedagogies.
Q: How is the diversity within the programs?
A: See below.
- With regard to racial diversity: 20.6% of students in 2018 identified as non-white. That number rose to 23.6% in 2019, and 25.6% in 2020.
- With regard to gender diversity: 58.3% female in 2018; 65.3% in 2020.
- With regard to nationality: 21.5% international in 2018; 21.6% in 2020.
- With regard to URM status: 9.9% URM in 2018; 12.4% in 2020.
Q: How is SEAS ensuring it has a diverse student body?
A: See below.
- Recruiting targeting Underrepresented students (including MSIs) as we follow U-M policy in regards to Prop 2.
- SEAS has launched a new Equity and Justice Initiative, which includes resources and opportunities for greater racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. This involves programmatic changes (which affect enrollment in the medium/longer run).
- SEAS has also launched a new Sustainability and Development specialization, which is recruiting international students as well as those who want to work on international and non-US issues.
- SEAS is also conducting training with faculty and staff on inclusion, anti-racism, systemic and structural racism towards understanding how race, class, gender affect students throughout the educational pipeline.
Q: How is diversity, equity, and inclusion reflected in the staff and faculty placements within SEAS?
A: See below.
- SEAS, like all units within the University, must be cognizant of laws like the 2006 Proposal 2, an amendment to the Michigan constitution that bans public institutions from discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public education, public employment, or public contracting.
- As our central DEI office notes, “the University of Michigan believes diversity is so important (because) we know from research, and from our experience as educators, that building a diverse community adds to the quality of our teaching and learning, our scholarship, and our creative endeavors.” Then-President Mary Sue Coleman discussed this in her November 2006 address to the University community when she said, “Diversity makes us strong, and it is too critical to our mission, too critical to our excellence, and too critical to our future to simply abandon. This applies to our state as much as our University. Michigan’s public universities and our public bodies must be more determined than ever to provide opportunities for women and minorities, who make up the majority of our citizenry.” As University President Mark Schlissel has stated, “our dedication to academic excellence for the public good is inseparable from our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We cannot be excellent without being diverse in the broadest sense of that word.”
- All individuals involved in faculty hiring need to take ADVANCE training, and SEAS has mandated that all faculty take mandatory anti-racism training.
- We have recently begun a DEI Seminar Series, where we have focused on diversity in workplace hiring, evaluating contributions to DEI, and other topics of interest for the whole SEAS community.
- We have established a new DEI sub-committee on ability and accessibility and will be starting a new DEI sub-committee on gender equity in the coming year.
Q: I'm curious about the makeup of the admitted cohort.
A: Fall 2021 Admitted Students YTD:
- Gender
- F - 68%
- M - 32%
- Citizenship
- Domestic - 72%
- International - 28%
- Ethnicity
- URM - 18%
- Non-URM - 82%
Note subgroups with fewer than 5 students are not displayed to prevent possible identification of students