University of Michigan
PA-5: Assessing Diversity and Equity

At the University of Michigan, our dedication to academic excellence for the public good is inseparable from our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is central to our mission as an educational institution to ensure that each member of our community has full opportunity to thrive in our environment, for we believe that diversity is key to individual flourishing, educational excellence and the advancement of knowledge. Background Information for the DEI Strategic Plan and Implementation Process In its second year of implementation, the University launched its five-year Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategic Plan in October 2016, after a year of campus wide planning and development. The plan is centered on the broad goal to advance the ideals of academic excellence and its symbiotic relationship with diversity, equity, and inclusion. The strategic plan outlines goals, new investments, and measures of accountability. The core campus wide strategies are to: 1) Create an inclusive and equitable campus; 2) Recruit, retain and develop a diverse community; and 3) Support innovative and inclusive scholarship and teaching. With regard to Strategy 1 of creating an inclusive and equitable campus, campus wide actions include training to build cultural awareness and inclusiveness skills; enhancing programming for student support and engagement; increasing support for community members experiencing bias; and conducting the first University-wide climate survey. With regard to Strategy 2, campus wide actions include initiatives to build a diverse pipeline of qualified undergraduate and graduate student candidates; support groups to ensure that students have resources needed to excel on campus; and develop tools to improve hiring and search processes for faculty and staff. With regard to Strategy 3, campus wide actions include programs to recruit and financially support faculty whose research centers on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion; training on inclusive teaching methods; and the development of processes that value diversity, equity and inclusion-related contributions in faculty evaluations and tenure review. In addition to the campus wide strategic plan, every school, college and administrative campus unit created its own diversity, equity and inclusion plan to address its unique local needs and opportunities. There are a total of 50 unit-based DEI plans. To view the University level DEI strategic plan, as well as the unit-based plans, please visit, http://diversity.umich.edu/strategic-plan/unit-activities/unit-plans-contacts/ The University has committed significant human, technical, and financial resources to support the programs and initiatives outlined in the campus wide strategic plan as well as unit plans. Additionally, because the University is committed to holding itself accountable for achieving progress under the plan, the University is tracking—over time—metrics that represent important factors in assessing progress toward goals. At regular intervals, we update the campus community on our progress. This tracking and reporting is occurring at the campus wide level as well as at the unit-level. There are two significant initiatives that the University has implemented to assess our progress towards our institutional DEI goals: 1) the development of an institutional DEI dashboard for students, faculty, and staff outcomes (available Summer 2018); and 2) the deployment of central and unit-level campus climate assessments. While DEI progress is tracked internally on an annual basis (please visit http://diversity.umich.edu/strategic-plan/ to view the Year One Progress Report), major institutional progress will be evaluated by an independent panel of expert DEI practitioners at the end of Year Three (2019) and again at the end of Year Five (2021). Below we give descriptions of these two assessment initiatives. Institutional DEI Metrics Dashboard The University of Michigan tracks and provides metrics relating to goals that reflect campuswide efforts to increase diversity in myriad forms, offer equal opportunity for all and without discrimination, and ensure a vibrant culture of inclusiveness to advance collective capabilities. A Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Metrics (DEI Metrics) dashboard was developed through a collaborative effort between the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Information and Technology Services, and Office of Budget and Planning. DEI Metrics draw on several sources of institutional data as the starting point for tracking these university-wide, goal-related metrics at the University and school, college, or unit level. The metrics below have been identified for provision in the first release of the DEI Metrics dashboards for tracking at the start of Year 2. 1. Diversity of: a. Undergraduate students—demographic composition (e.g., race/ethnicity, sex); enrollment status (level, entry status, class); 4- and 6-year graduation rates b. Graduate students— demographic composition (e.g., race/ethnicity, sex); degree level (Masters, Doctoral, Professional); enrollment status (new, continuing); time to degree c. Faculty— demographic composition (e.g., race/ethnicity, sex), generation status (age cohort); tenure status or academic rank; promotions; retention/turnover rate d. Staff— demographic composition (e.g., race/ethnicity, sex), generation status (age cohort); promotions; retention/turnover rate 2. Campus climate indicators: a. Student, faculty, and staff 12-month satisfaction with the overall campus or school, college, or unit, depending on constituency, climate/environment. b. Student, faculty, and staff assessment of semantic aspects (e.g., Welcoming/Unwelcoming, Friendly/Hostile, Racist/Non-Racist, Homophobic/Non-Homophobic, etc.) of the general climate and DEI climate of overall campus or school, college, or unit, depending on constituency. c. Student, faculty, and staff assessment of institutional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. d. Student, faculty, and staff feelings of sense of affirmation and academic or professional growth, depending on constituency. e. Student, faculty, and staff feeling of discrimination in past 12 months. The 50 planning units will receive hard copies of unit-specific reports in Summer 2018, and the dashboards will be published for use by the campus community and the general public by Fall 2018. The Campuswide Climate Assessments Over the past three years, there have been a number of climate assessments that have taken place at U-M. In 2015, the University’s Staff Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conducted focus groups and also distributed a climate survey to a targeted number of staff members within the community. The purpose of the Committee was to identify areas in the overall campus climate for staff that need improvement and make recommendations in support of creating a more supportive workplace climate for all, with a special focus on staff of color and other underrepresented groups (members of the LBGTQ community, veterans, individuals with disabilities, etc.). In 2017, as a complement to the DEI strategic planning process, the U-M conducted its first ever University-wide climate survey. For this effort, we sampled 1,500 faculty, 3,500 staff, and 3,500 students. Response to this effort was very robust, with 71% of faculty, 74% of staff, and 60% of students responding to the climate survey. Lastly, in addition to the sampling effort, three census efforts took place in 2017 to allow for all students, faculty, and staff to weigh in on the climate. Phase 1 targeted All-staff (March 2017). All-student and all-faculty surveys were administered in October 2017 as part of Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the climate survey census process.

A sampling of findings from the University-Level Climate Survey include • The results indicate that a majority of students, faculty, and staff report positive experiences at U-M. • Members of historically marginalized groups report significantly less positive experiences on campus. • Students, faculty, and staff report experiencing non-trivial levels of discrimination across a variety of social identities. • Members of historically marginalized groups report significantly more discriminatory experiences. • The data provide a rich base-line assessment of where we are as a community and will serve as an important resource in the DEI planning process.

Several large community assemblies were held during the 2017-2018 academic year to disseminate the findings from the University-level assessments to our students, faculty, and staff. Additionally, data from the climate survey census efforts is being used to develop unit level reports for the 50 planning units so that they have actionable climate data to draw from as they advance their unit-based DEI plans. Drawing on their unit-specific data, leadership has been encouraged to conduct similar information sharing sessions with their respective communities. Central administration provided numerous resources to aid these sessions. Lastly, we intend to provide as broad access to the University-level data as possible, both for our campus community as well as the general public. We are currently working with our world-renowned Institute for Social Research (ISR) to build an interactive tool on the University website that allows the University community to manipulate the data (available Fall 2018). To view the University level climate survey instruments and reports for students, faculty, and staff, please visit: http://diversity.umich.edu/strategic-plan/climate-survey/