Strategies and action items for People are designed to bolster and extend the work of all units by introducing effective programs and procedures aimed at recruiting, retaining and supporting a diverse campus community.
Wolverine Pathways (WP) creates a path to college readiness for middle and high school students residing in the Detroit, Southfield and Ypsilanti school districts. There have been 469 scholars who graduated from the WP program in the first five cohorts. WP Scholars who are admitted to UM-Ann Arbor or UM-Dearborn receive a four-year tuition scholarship, and those admitted to UM-Flint may be eligible for general scholarships. Special Impact Analyses for Wolverine Pathways were conducted as part of the DEI 1.0 Evaluation.
The University of Michigan established partnerships with community-based organizations in urban areas, and expanded to include rural and suburban communities, to increase recruitment outreach efforts to encourage students from these communities to apply to and attend U-M. In the last two years of DEI 1.0, 212 applications were received, 127 applicants were admitted and 43 students matriculated. Of these students: 72% identify as members of a historically underrepresented minority group; 67% self-report as being from a low-income household; and 60% will be the first in their family to graduate from college.
SuccessConnects provides undergraduate students with a supportive, inclusive, resource-filled community that encourages participants’ holistic success at U-M. Since 2016, 2,209 students have been served. The SuccessConnects program has shown to shrink the GPA gap between underrepresented minority students and majority students at U-M. Special Impact Analyses for SuccessConnects were conducted as part of the DEI 1.0 Evaluation.
Over the five years of DEI 1.0, University Human Resources launched a number of initiatives to diversify applicant pools, reduce bias in application reviews and interviewing and improve position postings to attract a wider pool of applicants that included 396 Data People users who made 49,000+ revisions to 1,167 job postings.
In efforts to increase admissions applications from Native students, the Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) collaborated with on- and off-campus partners to create recruitment and engagement opportunities, and expanded financial access to the Michigan Tuition Waiver program for eligible Native students.
The Center for Educational Outreach (CEO) serves as the campuswide hub for K-12 outreach. Over the years of DEI 1.0, CEO created and enhanced a number of in-person programs and initiatives that reached nearly 10,000 stakeholders, and over 15,000 students virtually.
The HAIL (High Achieving Involved Leader) Scholarship provides tuition assistance to students from Michigan public high schools. A total of 1,253 HAIL recipients have enrolled during the first five years of the program, representing 77 Michigan counties and 330 high schools from across the state.
In an effort to increase graduate student applications from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), the Rackham Graduate School has collaborated with the Atlanta University Center, McNair Program from the California State University, Long Beach, and a number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other MSIs over the years of DEI 1.0.
The Go Blue Guarantee (GBG) offers free tuition for up to four years for high-achieving, in-state, full-time undergraduate students with family incomes of $65,000 or under and assets below $50,000. Over the five-year span of DEI 1.0, the GBG has provided $50.5M in support to 4,700+ students.
During DEI 1.0, the University of Michigan created the First-Generation Student Gateway, and the First-Generation College Students@Michigan became a national chapter of the First-Gen/Low-Income Partnership (FLIP). Also, U-M was designated a First-Gen Forward Institution by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) for its commitment to first-generation student success.
The University of Michigan purchased a systemwide membership to the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) to provide free access to this professional development resource. Over 4,100 faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at the three U-M campuses have registered to gain access to NCFDD’s full array of resources.
Over the course of the five years of DEI 1.0, the ADVANCE program has made a number of notable impacts, including the fact that: (1) 100% of schools/colleges now require some or all faculty search committee members to complete STRIDE training; (2) 1,850+ faculty across the university have attended a STRIDE workshop; (3) a new series of workshops is now offered for campus leaders (chairs, associate deans, directors, deans, etc.) on faculty retention, focused specifically on Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) faculty; and (4) ADVANCE has continued to support faculty in research, teaching, service and caregiver roles through grants.
Over the past five years, the National Leadership Academy (NLA) core program has attracted 35 U-M participants from a pool of more than 130 national enrollees. Additionally, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Leadership for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion—developed in cooperation with Coursera—reached approximately 3,200 learners.
Faculty Allies (FA) serve as key contacts for DEI issues in graduate education within their respective departments. Since the launch of DEI 1.0, Rackham has expanded the Faculty Allies for Diversity program to 139 faculty allies, representing 107 departments and graduate programs, and the FA grants have provided over $1.2M to faculty and students.
The university increased the capacity of Student Life’s First-Year Experience (FYE) curriculum in order to support and retain a diverse, thriving student body. During the last three years of DEI 1.0, nearly 37,000 students participated in programs designed to welcome and inform first year and transfer students.
