In support of all of our DEI Strategic efforts, we deepened and broadened Student Engagement in Student Life DEI initiatives:
- Developed the Campus Climate Advisory Council (CCAC), made up of key student organization leaders, to coordinate diverse student voices in the advancement of campus climate work.
- Increased access to funding for peer-led programming focused on race and ethnicity through the MESA grants program, providing $90,000 and over 100 student advising sessions across 85 grants.
- Assisted 1,055 students in developing authentic identities through 35 Michigan Men’s workshops.
- Increased students' awareness of campus resources by expanding the divisional “You Belong Here” resource campaign to eight partners across Student Life.
- Partnered with the DEI Student Advisory Board in the planning and hosting of a Collaborative Thinking Event and an Inclusive Leadership Panel for students as part of the 2019 Diversity Summit.
- Expanded existing interfaith work and produced additional student facing programs:
- Engaged 736 participants across 15 interfaith focused events gatherings
- Hosted 7 colleges/universities for the IFYC Religious Pluralism and Religious Literacy Conference
- Launched monthly topical Interfaith Dialogue Series totaling 73 participants over 6 events
- Created Religious Literacy Training and Train the Trainer Program to be piloted 2020-2021
- Received a 2020 Innovation Grant for $6,000 to develop virtual interfaith content for 2020-2021
- In partnership with student organizations, completed the planning for Fall 2020 Early Welcome Programming to increase opportunities for early community building and identity exploration among students of color.
In support of U-M’s DEI Strategic effort to improve climate, Student Life strengthened support, education and advocacy for students:
- In partnership with Rackham, we reached 120 students through three workshops representing the second pilot phase of the Engendering Respectful Communities initiative, which uses a combination of skills training, monologues and talking circles guided by graduate facilitators.
- Delivered collaborative trainings to high impact/high influence student groups on well-being, sexual assault policy and prevention, hazing and bystander intervention skills, including Fraternity and Sorority Life (1,772 students), Michigan Marching Band (384 students), ROTC (160 students), Athletics (355 students)
- Launched Requestable Anti-Racism and Coalition Building Peer-led Teach-ins, designed to raise critical consciousness, understand the opportunity for actions, and explore how resources can be distributed.
- Some examples of student engagement and support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic include:
- Provided nearly $90,000 in emergency financial assistance to 128 students and supported over 400 students through critical incident case management services
- Met with students through 3,243 tele-counseling appointments, 354 online screenings, and 130 virtual wellness coaching sessions
- Connected with over 10,000 students through the Student Well-Being website
- Supported 500 shoppers who visited the Maize and Blue Cupboard
- Engaged thousands of students through online office hours, chat programs, and virtual events.
- Invested in the Center as a hub for community engagement and intercultural development through deepened relationships with students, strengthened academic partnerships, and implemented new and refreshed programming. During the 2019-2020 academic year the TMC was highly utilized, with a total of 1,900 room reservations, 11 academic courses taught on-site, and support available through weekly drop-in sessions.
In support of U-M’s DEI Strategic effort to improve climate, Student Life delivered innovative pilot programs to promote intercultural learning:
- Anchored Intercultural Learning Tools, including the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), Intercultural Conflict Styles Inventory (ICS), Cultural Intelligence Assessment (CQ) and Cultural Values Profile (CV), within the Trotter Multicultural Center.
- Expanded from one tool with 1,139 participants to three tools with 1,254 participants
- A total of 53 participants across four cohorts completed the new ICS partnership pilot
- A total of 1,311 IDI’s were completed with 1,116 participants engaging in group IDI sessions
- Continued to integrate the IDI into curricular spaces, with 839 of our IDI engagements taking place in partnership with academic units.
- Completed 606 Individual Qualified Administrator feedback sessions, with 69.8% of individual results track participants completing their one-on-one meeting (up from 65.6% of Year 3 participants).
In support of U-M’s DEI Strategic effort to recruit and retain a diverse student community, Student Life strengthened Thriving in the First Year efforts:
- Increased student engagement in first year programming with 6,527 incoming students, up 16% percent in the last two years, attending Relationship Remix and a total of 5,584 students, up 19% in the past two years, attending Change it Up!.
- Our signature ALA 171 course, Making the Most of Michigan, engaged 213 students this year, holding two sections with the Comprehensive Studies Program Bridge Scholars Plus students.
- Launched a new Welcome Event, connecting over 500 residents and their families with campus resources through 14 concurrent programs that were held during move-in.
- A total of 191 students participated in our ALA 421 course which teaches future Housing Resident Assistants skills for high impact interactions in order to create an inclusive residential experience.
- Integrated the Intercultural Development Inventory into Engineering’s M-ENGIN program, with 72 students (the entire cohort) completing the IDI and a group results session in Summer 2019.
In support of U-M’s DEI Strategic effort to support innovative and inclusive scholarship and teaching, Student Life strengthened academic partnerships invested in general DEI efforts:
- Provided leadership around the institutional shift from bias response to a framework of campus climate support, including the implementation of a responsive and flexible campus climate support model.
- Launched an institutional Campus Climate Ad Hoc Team to coordinate responses to major climate concerns and identify patterns in order to best support students.
- Increased awareness institutionally regarding where students can report campus climate concerns through conducting presentations on the new model to DEI Leads (March 2020), Student Advisory Boards, Campus Climate Advisory Council, and 45 student organizations.
- Through the First Generation and Low Income Student Task Force, reviewed centralized support programs and services, identification of gaps and opportunities to better meet the needs of students, and development of a robust set of recommendations. Increased awareness of needs and interventions through the delivery of presentations on “Advancing Student Support through Innovative Partnerships” to key academic and administrative partners,
- Worked with 45 student organizations to facilitate student engagement in Debate planning and implementation, resultign in in the creation of a Campus Climate Advisory Council (CCAC which coordinates a diverse student voices in the advancement of campus climate work.
In support of our Staff Team DEI Strategic efforts, we transformed our workforce to be more diverse and inclusive:
- Continued to improve racial and ethnic representation in our workforce. In FY20 of our 1,311 Student LIfe staff, 40.5% (531) identified as coming from underrepresented racial backgrounds, compared to 39.13% (495) in FY18 (N=1,265).
- Improved gender representation in the workforce, with a .6% increase in employees who identify as a gender other than female between FY19 and FY20.
- Increased our percentage of applicants who identify as having a disability as well as our hiring rate of those applicants.
- Integrated TapRecruit technology to enhance job descriptions through augmented writing software that helps ensure advertisements are thoughtful, concise and welcoming to candidates from various backgrounds.
- Continued our successful Search Training launched in Year 3, providing 3 sessions of Search Training for Committee Members, touching 35 staff in FY20, and an additional 16 staff participated in 2 sessions of Search Training for Hiring Managers.
- Continued our successful required New Staff Orientation, with 89% of attendees responding that attending NSO made them feel more included and part of Student Life.
- Implemented new divisional compensation model impacting 700 professional staff, which supports consistent, equitable and sustainable practices for determining compensation across the division.
- Expanded staff access and engagement in DEI learning through offering 39 DEI or Social Justice & Inclusion (SJI) professional development programs or workshops during FY20 that saw 472 attendees (313 unique).
- Enhanced staff exposure to religious diversity through our annual Professional Development Conference Keynote, reaching 148 attendees.
- Student Life staff engaged Central Organizational Learning’s PD offerings, resulting in 89 individual touchpoints with Student Life staff during FY20 (69 unique touchpoints).
- In support of our Thriving in the First Year initiative, we also focused on enhancing staff training efforts for our residential staff. The following are some ways this work was accomplished this year:
- 900 professional and student staff members were trained on responding to and supporting students impacted by identity related incidents.
- Continuation of the July Diversity and Inclusion Social Justice Institute, a two day immersive experience for approximately 70 Michigan Housing professional staff.
- Implemented the Fundamentals of Diversity and Inclusion for Professional Course, for 30 staff participants, which is a required 9 week class.
- IGR and MESA co-facilitated “What does being an ally really mean?” offered to 23 Student Life staff participants who had an opportunity to map their own allyhood capacities and behaviors utilizing Keith Edwards’ Aspiring Ally framework.
- Achieved a 99% divisional completion rate of the University’s “Cultivating a Culture of Respect: Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Awareness“ module for 3,000 employees; 19 of 26 units achieved 100% participation.
- Partnered with the Office for Institutional Equity to host a session on the draft Policy, answer questions and solicit input for a system-wide sexual misconduct Umbrella Policy for faculty, staff and students.
- Facilitated 3 sessions of Responsible Employer Training as part of Student Life New Staff Orientation touching 117 staff in FY20.
In support of all our DEI Strategic efforts, we also created systems and to better leverage data to improve our (DEI) Work:
- Continued to integrate our four stage assessment cycle of gathering, analyzing, reporting, and utilizing data to frame the continual growth and development of our work.
- Continued to advance assessment of our educational programs by examining students’ progress on six core student learning outcomes. Results show our core work programming continuing to have a significant impact across our student learning outcomes, with opportunities to advance our impact on our most seasoned student leaders.
- Developed 25 tailored reports presenting program-specific data associated with DEI efforts.
- The Student Life DEI Student Advisory Board, made up of 20 graduate and undergraduate students, hosted a Student Engagement Design Thinking Event, which emerged recommendations that have been used to inform our Year 4 and Year 5 tasks.
- Developed a DEI Assessment Question Bank, accessible to all Student Life units, updated by Student Life Assessment & Research, and used to develop more consistent data across the division.
- Integrated the measure “This program fostered a sense of belonging during my time at UofM” into all our Student Learning Outcomes Assessment post-test surveys for the 2020 academic year, totaling 2489 respondents.
- Integrated an authenticator in our Student Learning Outcomes Assessment surveys to allow for more pre- to post-test survey matching and a deeper understanding of students' growth towards our stated goals and outcomes.
- Completed the hiring process for the inaugural Director of Student Life Assessment and Research.