Student Life’s Progress – Year 3 Highlights

In support of all of our DEI Strategic efforts, we deepened and broadened Student Engagement in Student Life DEI initiatives:
  • Dedicated 158 hours to formally training students to serve as peer educators to deliver 30 Social Justice and Intercultural Development programs throughout the division.
  • Hosted a student Diversity Summit to increase student engagement with Trotter Multicultural Center (TMC) programs and encourage input on addressing campus climate themes.  Student Life Design Thinking Session participant survey results indicated increased student engagement from across the University.
  • The campus community and the DEI Student Advisory Boards served as thought partners leading up to the Opening of the Trotter on State Street building on April 11, 2019. Efforts resulted in a successful opening with over 1,500 individuals in attendance at the TMC on State Street Opening Celebration.
  • Launched a successful DEI student internship program to improve student leadership and engagement in DEI efforts across the division, with 15 interns selected and a 200% increase in applications from Year 1 (30) to Year 2 (90). 
  • Using a new staff model to bring more programming to multicultural lounges, 548 programs were delivered by student staff in FY19, up from 270 in FY18.
In support of U-M’s DEI Strategic effort to improve climate, Student Life strengthened support, education and advocacy for students:
  • Partnered in leading out the institutional task force charged to examine and make recommendations around support for first-generation and low-income students. Provided improved support for low-income students:
    • Improved equity and access to housing assignments by adjusting housing deposit requirements and delaying freshman assignments until after national financial aid signing.
    • Established the new Maize and Blue Cupboard to address food insecurity on campus through: daily distributions, small group nutrition classes, one-on-one dietary counseling, cooking demonstrations, recipe information, and referral services.
    • Established the Clothes Closet through which U-M students can receive free business attire in support of their job/ internship search process and experiences.
  • Collaborated with students and staff/faculty in improving students support, including the launch of the Spectrum Center mentorship program with a total of 60 staff and faculty mentors and 55 undergraduate and graduate mentees from 13 schools and colleges in its pilot year.
  • Delivered a total of 66 Social Justice education and Intercultural Development programs and developed a Social Justice Education and Intercultural Development pilot to improve capacity and coordination of existing relevant programming offered to academic units (by Ginsberg Center, Housing, International Center, Office of Student Conflict Resolution, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center and Spectrum Center).
In support of U-M’s DEI Strategic effort to improve climate, Student Life delivered innovative pilot programs to promote intercultural learning:
  • The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) pilot is now embedded in Trotter Multicultural Center as a featured component of a broader intercultural learning program that includes the Intercultural Conflict Styles Inventory (ICS), Cultural Intelligence Assessment (CQ), Cultural Values Profile (CV).
  • In Year 3, 1140 students completed the IDI (182% increase from Year 2) and 112 staff have been certified as IDI Qualified Administrators.
  • Other innovative programming to be piloted and/or fully implemented in the 2019-2020 academic year at Trotter includes FaithZone Training, What Matters To Me and Why, Interfaith Portfolio and Interfaith Reflection. 
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 involvement in first-year peer-education programs by reviewing needs, increasing collaboration, improving recruitment and scaling training.
  • Engaged with academic partners invested in and admitting first-year students.
  • Developed a pilot August 2019 First Ascent recreational trip for students to visit Idlewild.  Idlewild was one of the first resorts in America to make land available for African American to vacation and purchase property in the early 20th century.  The trip is promoted in partnership with SIBS (Support for Incoming Black Students) in MESA.
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:
  • Finalized Student Life’s Year 3 Partnership Inventory and analyzed for evidence demonstrating a movement towards a “culture of partnerships” identifying 634 on-campus partnerships, 284 extending beyond campus
  • Created a Culture of Partnerships Toolkit, to provide helpful information, tools, and characteristics to advance and strengthen partnerships. 
  • Delivered a Partnership training session for Student Life Professional Development Conference and individualized consultations to unit directors and staff.
  • Presented to Student Affairs Network to increase campus-wide awareness of first-year resources.
In support of our Staff Team DEI Strategic efforts, we transformed our workforce to be more diverse and inclusive:
  • Improved race and ethnicity representation in the workforce. In FY19 (N=1,275), nearly 40% (510) of Student Life staff identified as coming from underrepresented racial backgrounds, compared to 36% (376) in FY17 (N=1,044).
  • Improved gender representation in the workforce, with a .9% increase in employees who identify as a gender other than female between FY17 - FY19.
  • Led 26 Unconscious Bias training sessions with 473 staff. Participants report that they became “more aware of the existence of every day or unconscious bias, (86%), and learned ways to “minimize the negative effects of bias” their own decision-making (85%)”.
In support of our Staff Team DEI Strategic efforts, we transformed our workplace to foster an equitable and inclusive environment for all:
  • Hosted 29 DEI professional development events centrally. Seventeen (17) units hosted an additional 69 DEI development events (40% ongoing). As of the end of FY19, 100% of Housing professional staff have taken the class “Fundamentals of Diversity and Inclusion”.
  • A cross-unit Student Life task force produced a set of recommendations to inform the development of a new Student Life Compensation Model to improve fairness, consistency, and equity in compensation practices for 700 professional staff in over 20 units.  This work focused on ensuring Student Life will:
    • Be competitive in attracting developing and retaining top talent
    • Make salary decisions that are objective, clear and understandable and
    • Pay our staff in a consistent, equitable and sustainable way.
  • Made significant structural changes to promote belonging, for example creating gender-inclusive locker rooms and restrooms and providing Trans care education for over 600 people across campus. Student Life focused on inclusive spaces in Recreational Sports buildings, including 3 gender-inclusive locker rooms, 2 personal reflection rooms, and a 5-stall, non-gendered, barrier-free restroom group in NCRB.
In support of all our DEI Strategic efforts, we also created systems and to better leverage data to improve our (DEI) Work:
  • Conducted preliminary analyses on the 2018 Division-wide SLO data set and reported on students’ progress on the six core student learning outcomes during Student Life experiences. 
  • Developed 25 tailored reports presenting program-specific data associated with DEI efforts.
  • Implemented a data liaison pilot program focused on building assessment capacity within units through integrated support structures and ongoing learning (the liaison program will be rolled out to all units in FY20).