Making Excellence Inclusive: Diversity, Inclusion, and Institutional Renewal

Briefing Papers

Making Excellence Inclusive is designed to help colleges and universities fully integrate their diversity and educational quality efforts and embed them into the core of academic mission and institutional functioning. With support from the Ford Foundation, AAC&U commissioned three briefing papers that address the work needed to comprehensively link diversity and quality and place them at the center of campus planning and practice.

Making Diversity Work on Campus: A Research-Based Perspective(pdf)
Print copy also available for purchase.
By Jeffrey F. Milem, Mitchell J. Chang, and
Anthony Lising Antonio

"Engaging diversity more comprehensively is not only consistent with our own research about effective institutional practices and change processes; it also suggests that institutions must think beyond mission and value statements in developing and implementing a plan that will make an appreciable difference."

The authors discuss recent empirical evidence, gathered on behalf of the University of Michigan Supreme Court defense, demonstrating the educational benefits of diverse learning environments. These are environments that must be intentionally planned and nurtured, where diversity is conceived of as a process toward better learning and not merely an outcome that one can check off a list. Included are numerous suggestions for how to engage diversity in the service of learning, ranging from recruiting a compositionally diverse student body, faculty, and staff to transforming curriculum, co-curriculum, and pedagogy to reflect and support goals for inclusion and excellence.

Achieving Equitable Educational Outcomes with All Students: The Institution's Roles and Responsibilities (pdf)
By Georgia L. Bauman, Leticia Tomas Bustillos, Estela Mara Bensimon, M. Christopher Brown III, and
RoSusan D. Bartee

"...we regard the challenge of narrowing the college education gap and achieving equitable educational outcomes for minority groups as a problem of institutional responsibility and performance rather than a problem that is exclusively related to student academic preparation, motivation, and accountability."

The authors discuss the responsibility institutions have to examine the impact that traditional higher education practices have on those students historically underserved by higher education, including African American, Latino/a, and American Indian students. Given the persistent achievement gap facing many students, institutions must systematically gather evidence of what does and does not work for historically underserved students and build institutional reform around such evidence. Included is one campus's process for systematically monitoring students' achievement and for addressing the inequities it discovered.

Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence and Change in Postsecondary Institutions (pdf)
By Damon A. Williams, Joseph B. Berger, and
Shederick A. McClendon

"The discussion of diversity in higher education too often reads as though change occurs in a rational and ordered manner, in a static environment, and detached from any context [yet] rational choice and top-level mandates are only a few of the forces that enable—or disable—inclusive excellence on college campuses.”

The authors offer a framework for comprehensive organizational change to help campuses achieve inclusive excellence. Campuses must consider multiple dimensions of organizational culture in mapping out a change strategy and monitor the results that come from introducing new systems and new practices. Included is a model that helps campus leaders focus simultaneously on the "big picture"—an academy that systematically leverages diversity for student learning and institutional excellence—and the myriad individual pieces that contribute to that picture.

Making Excellence Inclusive is housed within two AAC&U program offices—the Office of Education and Institutional Renewal and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives—and is led by AAC&U Vice President Alma Clayton-Pedersen. For more information, contact Misha Charles, administrative/program assistant, at charles@aacu.org.