President Mark Schlissel said Thursday that new leaders on the Ann Arbor campus were exploring new strategies for increasing student diversity and improving the campus climate for underrepresented minorities.
“I look forward to being able to present new strategies to the regents and the entire Michigan community later this year,” Schlissel said during his opening remarks for the Board of Regents meeting on the UM-Flint campus.
The president provided an update on diversity efforts, echoing part of his Sept. 5 inaugural speech when he said U-M could not achieve true excellence without leveraging the experiences and perspectives of the broadest possible diversity of people and ideas at all of our campuses.
“This remains a top priority for me,” he said at the regents meeting.
Schlissel said two new leaders involved with this work are now on board in Ann Arbor: Rob Sellers, vice provost for equity, inclusion and academic affairs, and Kedra Ishop, associate vice president for enrollment management. Both are part of the Office of the Provost, led by Provost Martha Pollack.
Sellers, a U-M psychology professor, chaired the faculty-led committee that produced a report on Achieving Equity and Inclusion at Michigan. The president said university leaders are now studying those recommendations.
He also said part of Ishop’s work is to look at new approaches to recruitment, especially as it relates to recruiting diverse students.
Board of Regents Chair Katherine E. White said the board was looking forward to working with Schlissel “on meeting and solving the various challenges you have articulated. We support you in your efforts. Through this process we value competency, integrity, transparency and accountability.”
Schlissel also provided updates on a range of efforts underway to increase student diversity. Among the programs mentioned were:
• Change It Up, a residence hall program designed to develop skills to help students intervene when they see or hear behavior that is harmful to the campus climate.
• An Inclusive Language Campaign, launched last month, which is educating the campus community about how word choices affect others.
• Discussions with members of the Black Student Union, which are continuing. “These ongoing discussions are resulting in very productive consultations,” the president said.
• Improvements to the Trotter Multicultural Center, which were completed over the summer, “while we work to identify new space for the center.”
