A culture shift

The job of creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community rests not within one organization or group of people, but with all of us. Recent crises sharply exposed the disparities in our society and how continued systemic racism and bias in our country obstruct equal opportunity.

We are building a framework to ensure every member of the engineering community is educated about issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, beginning with a focus on race, ethnicity and unconscious bias. 

We will also maintain and expand pipelines and pathways to become successful engineers and leaders, and create tools to ensure the campus is more inclusive and equitable.

Two major initiatives are taking us beyond the five-year strategic plan and into the future of a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment that permeates our community.

• Education: Sustained, pervasive education around issues of race, ethnicity, unconscious bias and inclusion for everyone in engineering – students, faculty and staff – within one year.
• Office of Culture, Community and Equity (OCCE) Evolving the role of our Center for Engineering Diversity and Outreach (CEDO), OCCE established a new structure that works horizontally across all our pillars and units to ensure the work is not siloed and provides resources for the students (current and prospective), staff and faculty behind our research, education and culture.

DEI Strategic Plan

When the University launched its initial five-year strategic plan, as engineers we took the time to evaluate the how and why behind DEI. Through it, we identified the major challenges and obstacles and learned how to clear a better path through them. These initiatives are foundational to lasting change and will build a framework to allow us to become more effective in our efforts to address other critical matters, such as sexual misconduct, accessibility, harassment and more.

Review Michigan Engineering’s DEI 2.0 plan (pdf)