2007 Diversity Summit

October 4, 2007

Good morning. Today’s turnout tells me we have very committed staff, faculty and students who want to see Michigan become a stronger university.

I want to begin today with a personal story.

A little over six months ago, in the wake of Proposal 2, I offered to make a phone call to a potential member of this fall’s incoming freshman class.

His grades were strong, as were his SAT and ACT scores. His teachers raved about him, saying they genuinely looked forward to seeing him in class each day because of what he contributed.

He loved politics and public speaking. He had volunteered for political campaigns and immersed himself in municipal government. He worked at the town library. You would not believe the list of his honors and extra curricular activities.

Despite being born to an American mother and a Mexican father, and growing up surrounded by the Spanish language, he never learned his father’s native tongue. He took it upon himself to become fluent in Spanish, because he wants his children to be proud of their Latino heritage.

Can you think of a stronger individual to join our community?

But despite being accepted, he had not yet said, “Yes, I want to come to Michigan.”

Let me tell you a bit about our phone conversation, which was the longest and most emotional of dozens of similar calls I had with prospective students.

He shared that his father had run out a long time ago, his family was poor, and his mother was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with so many family demands that he doubted he could attend our Amazing Blue Preview and our Spring Welcome Day, two events he had been invited to because of his tremendous potential.

But here is what really made me sit up and take notice about this young man. He said he was an ardent supporter of affirmative action. He had followed the University’s arguments over the years, could practically quote our legal briefs, and celebrated our victory before the U.S. Supreme Court.

He simply couldn’t say enough about the University of Michigan and affirmative action.

But he did say he was not going to come here. He was going to forego Michigan because Proposal 2 and its ban on affirmative action surely would make for a campus that would not welcome him. The University of Michigan would go down the same path as California universities following Prop 209, and he just didn’t want to be part of that.

If you truly believe that, I told him, you will ensure that we become like California, bereft of diversity and talent on their campuses. We want you at Michigan precisely because of our climate, one that welcomes students of all backgrounds and histories, and precisely because of the remarkable talents and experiences you will add to our campus.

He said he would think about it.

As of today, that bright young man is in his fifth week of classes as a freshman in our College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Something convinced him that Michigan was the place for him, and for his future.

It may have been our phone conversation; I’m not shy to say I worked really hard to convince him to come here.

But I was not alone when I called him.

I sat alongside staff from the Undergraduate Admissions Office, who worked to expose him to the benefits of our campus. They may have been the difference.

It may have been the folks from Housing, who were able to answer any questions he had about what we offer freshmen. Or it may have been the analysts from the Office of Financial Aid, who were ready to share the details of the scholarships we were offering him.

Building and celebrating diversity at Michigan cannot be the work of one person. It is not the president’s job, or the dean’s job, or the work of the admissions counselor. It is a shared responsibility, and one we all must accept and carry forward.

Today’s Summit is dedicated to assessing the progress of Diversity Blueprints. Many, many people devoted countless hours to creating the Blueprints in the days and weeks following the passage of Proposal 2, and I want to thank them again for such diligent work.

In light of their efforts, we will hear positive news today. We will hear about Descriptor Plus, a geodemographic analytical tool being used by the Admissions Office to provide critical data on a student’s neighborhood and school. We have new financial aid packages to offer students, in hopes Michigan will be their choice over other outstanding universities. And we have important research that will contribute to the creation and mission of a new Center for Educational Outreach and Academic Success and the coordinated, centralized work we must do with our state’s K-12 system.

With this progress, I want to offer some cautionary words before today’s sessions unfold. It has only been six months since Diversity Blueprints was unveiled, and the University of Michigan is a very complex organization. Much as we’d like to see otherwise, progress does not occur overnight on our campus.

More importantly, we must tell ourselves that Diversity Blueprints is one more tool to accelerate our longstanding and ongoing efforts to ensure that our campus reflects the world around us. It is not the tool, but rather one of many.

And as we all know, while Proposal 2 prevents us from using affirmative action, we still have many, many tools at our disposal. We have financial aid awards; we have campus programs like Women in Science and Engineering; and we have pipeline projects with area middle and high schools.

Was affirmative action valuable? Absolutely, to the point of invaluable. Yet even with affirmative action, the goal of a diverse campus was steep. Now, with affirmative action idle, we must redouble our efforts, and our commitment, to enhancing a dynamic campus that so many people have worked so diligently to create.

Diversity is absolutely essential to our academic excellence. We are dedicated to building a student body that is an exciting and interesting mix of young men and women who each contribute unique ideas and perspectives to our university. By bringing together students of different backgrounds and different experiences, we create an intellectual environment that is unmatched in higher education, and we produce alumni who go on to make a difference in all aspects of our society.

And finally, we must remind ourselves that from our earliest days, the University has recognized the value, and the contributions, of a multi-faceted faculty and student body. Diversity is as much a part of the Michigan tradition as the Diag and the “Yellow and the Blue.”

Henry Tappan, our first president, proclaimed, “We must take the world just as full as it is.” Acting President Henry Frieze opened our doors to women in 1870, and James Angell reinforced the decision by announcing: “The ground once maintained by some, that the women have not the intellectual gifts required to master the severe studies of a collegiate course, seems to be generally abandoned.”

It has been more than a century since the Board of Regents resolved there would be equal opportunity in the hiring of faculty, pledging that the University would not look at whether a scholar was male or female, but rather was the best person for the job.

This thinking, this commitment, has persisted and expanded over the decades. James Duderstadt challenged us with the Michigan Mandate, and Lee Bollinger refused to blink when we were sued over our admissions policies.

We have been doing this work for a long, long time at Michigan, and we are known throughout the country for our leadership in diversity. We have a distinguished, enviable climate, and together we share the responsibility of maintaining and enhancing a vibrant campus.

Today is dedicated to looking forward.

As president, I am going to continue advocating the benefits of, and the very need for, diversity in higher education as a means to improving our society. I will continue to reach out to the brightest young people to enroll at the University of Michigan; it may be through an after-dinner phone call or a visit to their high school, community center, or church.

I can make a difference.

Joining me in this outreach are Provost Sullivan and the University’s executive officers, who have pledged to involve themselves personally in our admissions efforts to provide a one-on-one approach to recruiting the best students.

They can make a difference.

You will leave today armed with new information, new ideas, and a renewed commitment to a learning environment respected for its openness, its rigor, and its diversity of disciplines, ideas, cultures and personal stories.

You can make a difference.

Together, we all will make this a university that inspires a bright high school senior to say, “Yes, I want to come to Michigan.”

Thank you.