What does the University of Minnesota lose if a commitment to equity, access, and diversity is not internalized as a core institutional value?

A Risk Assessment by the Senate Committee on Equity, Access, and Diversity
November 2005

1. The potential for discovery narrows when research is conducted by a homogenous group whose members bring a similar set of background assumptions and approaches to the research process.
2. University research is less rigorous when shielded from critique by those who offer diverse perspectives or who may be affected by that research.
3. Recruitment, retention, and success suffer: Undergraduate, graduate, and professional student recruitment, retention, and success suffer when organizational structures and pedagogical theories remain narrowly focused.
4. Knowledge and insights are lost: When cultural differences, in ways of learning, speaking, writing, interacting with authority figures, etc., are perceived as individual failures, valuable knowledge and insights are lost. Differences are not shortcomings.
5. Creativity is stifled and paradigm shifts are unlikely: An organizational culture characterized by hierarchical and frequently unidirectional modes of communication stifles creativity and makes paradigm shifts unlikely.
6. Individual talents and gifts are neither recognized nor fostered: When we find no value in different ways of knowing or different forms of intelligence, we fail to recognize and foster the immense variety of talents and gifts of each individual.
7. Advancement of our institution is hindered: Relying on currently standard metrics of excellence maintains the status quo and hinders the advancement of our institution toward becoming one of the top three public research universities in the 21^st century.
8. Traditional standards limit diversity: When measures of success are limited to the quantifiable (e.g., standardized test scores), we lose sight of the qualitative aspects of working and learning at the university, thus risking loss of the very essence (and ethics) of a public research university–as a marketplace for diverse ideas, a place that values the expression of diverse and sometimes uncomfortable worldviews, a place where paradigm shifts stimulate discoveries that ultimately move humanity forward.
9. Opportunities for exchanging ideas are lost: Globalization has economic, political, and cultural implications; without attention to diversity, the University loses opportunities for exchanging ideas across cultures and developing knowledge informed by a rich composite of perspectives, experiences, and worldviews.
10. The bond of trust between the University and the greater community is compromised and genuine public engagement becomes nearly impossible when the institution pays mere lip-service to diversity, and fails to respect, value, and be deeply and visibly transformed by it.

For the University of Minnesota to be nationally and internationally eminent, commitments to diversity and inclusiveness must be central to framing its mission and to directing its strategic positioning goals, and diversity must be incorporated into the measures of success. If diversity is regarded as separable from excellence, rather than at the heart of what excellence means, the University cannot achieve the greatness it seeks.