Futuring Diversity conference

May 17, 2005

Good morning.

Thank you for joining us for what will be two very important days for the University of Michigan and our continuing work to create a more diverse society through the new National Center for Institutional Diversity.

I want to thank Dr. Lester Monts and the steering committee of the Center for their dedication and vision in shaping not just this conference, but the Center itself. Much hard work has gone into the planning process, and I thank everyone involved for their time and efforts.

Also, I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Monts for his guidance in his role as senior counsel to the president. His leadership helps this university bring its aspirations to life.

I am also grateful to the Ford Foundation for its tremendous show of support for our conference and our Center. The Foundation is a national leader in promoting inclusion and access, and their support and presence today is a critical endorsement of our work.

It is both a privilege and an obligation for the University of Michigan to develop the National Center for Institutional Diversity.

Our fight to the Supreme Court as defendant in two landmark—and controversial—cases was but a critical first step in a journey we are far from completing.

The Court’s decisions were the beginning of hard questions to be asked, and difficult battles to be fought.

This conference will help to create a road map for the University—and other institutions throughout our society—to develop methods and best practices for creating, exploring and embracing diversity.

We have much to be proud of at Michigan, and our accomplishments are a solid foundation upon which to create this new Center.

Two weeks ago we held commencement, and at our ceremony for graduate students I recognized a newly minted clinical psychologist by the name of Wizdom Powell. Wizdom is an African-American woman who is the first in her family to earn a college degree, let alone a PhD. She said she never really thought about coming to our University for graduate work, but visited campus at the invitation of a friend.

What she discovered was a community of black psychology scholars and the University’s commitment to diversity—an environment that she said was so strong it convinced her to seek both her master’s and doctorate degrees here.

We are working hard at building a community that is broadly diverse and mutually supportive. Wizdom found it here, and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made so far:

• We are hiring more faculty of diverse ethnic and racial origins, ensuring that our students learn from scholars who mirror the world they will enter upon graduation.
• We are working to increase the graduation rates of our minority students and close the achievement gap. The numbers are modest, and we still have hard work to do, but they are moving in the right direction.
• And we are constantly infusing our curriculum with different perspectives from a multitude of sources.

From our theme semesters on the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and the culture of the Middle East, to our award-winning Program in Intergroup Relations, we are always seeking ways to expose our students to new people and different ideas.

Our graduates are entering a world that is increasingly flat and increasingly connected. We want them to be leaders in a global workforce, and in cross-cultural communities.

We hope to prepare them for full immersion in a world where boundaries are more transparent than ever before, and where diversity is defined more broadly than race or gender alone.

With the national spotlight from the Supreme Court cases and the University’s long track record of diversity initiatives, many people around the country are looking to Michigan and saying, “What now? What next?”

We know that we’re living in a country that struggles with major societal gaps:

• Staggering inequities in health care for minority populations.
• Discouraging disparities we see in upward mobility from one generation to the next.
• Inequalities in graduation rates—both in high school and college—between our majority and minority students.
• Income disparities on our college campuses.
• Differences in the patrons and participants at our museums, our concert halls and our theaters.
• And voids we see in the diversity of people leading our corporations, our legislatures and our communities.

Leaders from all segments of our society are looking to the University of Michigan—and higher education overall—for the best ways to address the complexities of diversity. They are looking for our leadership to close these gaps.

Our colleges and universities are the focal point for effecting change in our society. The quality and equity of higher education has deep ramifications for the quality and equity of our country and our position as a global leader.

That is why I am so pleased that some of the brightest minds in the country are with us today to help define our Center for Institutional Diversity.

We have so much work to do!

One important legacy of the Michigan admissions lawsuits was the contribution of new scholarship. Michigan faculty members, along with colleagues across the country, presented new knowledge on the outcomes of diversity that has grown into a robust community of thought.

We will continue to encourage spectacular scholarship on diversity-related topics as a key part of this Center’s work, but we know we will also need to move beyond research alone if we hope to fully address the host of issues before us.

We will look at some of the looming gaps in our society today, and host roundtable discussions focusing on some of the biggest issues we need to tackle in the next few years: workforce development, the impact of globalization, how we build diverse communities, K-12 education and equity in health care.

Your job today is to help us identify the tools and materials we need to close these gaps and build bridges that will lead to a society that is inclusive, productive and democratic.

Justice O’Connor said she envisions an America that will not need affirmative action in 25 years. I wish I could share her optimism, but I don’t know that we can overcome 250 years of inequality and divisiveness in such relatively quick order.

That makes this conference and our Center for Institutional Diversity all the more critical. These two days represent monumental work, and it is why we are calling this a working conference.

It is paramount that you participate, because we need your ideas, your criticisms, your expertise and your energy. So I encourage you to be frank and be bold with your conversations. We ask this every day of our students, and it is what I am asking of you for our Center.

With your creativity, we will be a better Center, a better University, and a better society.

Thank you.