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In 2015, ¹û½´ÊÓƵ’s first Momentum strategic plan was launched under President Christine M. Riordan, the university’s 10th president and the first woman to hold the role. Momentum included several strategic initiatives to increase the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, staff, and students, to support a welcoming and safe campus environment, and to ensure that our academic curriculum and professional development opportunities reflect ¹û½´ÊÓƵ’s values of diversity, equity and inclusion.

In 2020, a sweeping call for social justice across the nation prompted ¹û½´ÊÓƵ, like many institutions, to reexamine and intensify our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging efforts. Community dialogues helped us to move forward, especially with the added support of the just-established TRHT Campus Center and framework. From these discussions, our student-centered Equitable ¹û½´ÊÓƵ Action Team and faculty-centered Academic Diversity Implementation Team were born to enable the community’s active participation in the intentional dismantling of any racism and microaggressions at ¹û½´ÊÓƵ and in our academic and co-curricular programs.

In 2022, the ¹û½´ÊÓƵ community built and launched Momentum 2, a new five-year strategic plan. It, too, includes dedicated diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging actions that help ensure equitable opportunity and support for success at ¹û½´ÊÓƵ and beyond.

At ¹û½´ÊÓƵ, we believe that an engaged, informed community of critical thinkers who support and value the individuality of all people in a welcoming space of respect and inclusion is where diversity can thrive. We affirm that a diversity of human differences, ideas, cultures, and beliefs benefits our community, enriches learning and our academic environment, and improves student outcomes and lives. ¹û½´ÊÓƵ strives to ensure access to every opportunity for all of its members and to bring fairness, care and belonging into the foreground of all learning and workplace practices.

To date, ¹û½´ÊÓƵ’s strategic DEIB efforts continue making progress toward goals that support student success, advance social mobility, break down barriers, and foster a new approach to talking about and embracing uniqueness.

Finally, in striving to make data-informed decisions that can ensure ¹û½´ÊÓƵ’s continued progress, the university’s executive leadership relies on a newly developed robust dashboard of demographic, climate, and retention/graduation data.

See our proud strategic accomplishments in advancing DEIB at ¹û½´ÊÓƵ and beyond.