During the past week, I have had the pleasure to attend the town hall meetings designed to gather student input on the University’s diversity strategic planning process. It’s clear to me, after hearing directly from students and reading a thoughtful and compelling Jan. 11 Michigan Daily essay written by Michigan in Color contributors Jamie Tam and Velma Lopez, that we have not done an adequate job explaining some aspects of the planning process.
While a great deal of important information about the nuts and bolts of the planning process is posted on the diversity.umich.edu website, we have been less clear regarding our rationale for conducting the planning process in the manner that we have. This lack of clarity has given rise to some concerns regarding the process itself.
One concern voiced is that the University cannot be serious about diversity because we have not announced a specific funding amount dedicated to tackling this issue. Last fall, Yale University announced a five-year, $50 million initiative to increase faculty diversity. At about the same time, Brown University announced a $100 million commitment to a wide range of initiatives regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.
Read this article in its entirety: myumi.ch/6xB1z