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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a long-held tradition of striving for excellence. A critical element for any twenty-first century educational institution is a diverse and inclusive community. The vision of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs is to build and sustain an inclusive campus community and to foster a welcoming climate that values and respects all members of the University community. The mission of the Office affirms the University’s commitment to diversity as a critical element of academic excellence.

The Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs (DMA)

DMA is an administrative unit in the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. Diversity and Multicultural Affairs is lead by the associate provost for diversity and multicultural affairs who serves as the chief diversity officer for the University and advises the executive vice chancellor and provost and the chancellor on diversity policies and issues. The associate provost for diversity and multicultural affairs collaborates with senior University officers and campus units to identify and implement strategies/ initiatives for achieving the goals of increased diversity and for building an inclusive environment that values and respect the contributions of all members of the University community.

Partnerships and collaborations with the Vice Chancellors, deans, and other unit heads are leveraged to accomplish the University’s diversity goals for increased racial, ethnic and gender diversity within our faculty, staff, and student cohorts.

Our Framework for Understanding Diversity at UNC

The University of North Carolina in the 21st century functions in a global context. The historical, political, economic, and educational contexts of the University, the state, and the nation shape our present circumstances and inform the measures we must take to accomplish our highest aspirations of excellence. We acknowledge that we face an ongoing challenge to overcome the effects of the continuing influences of adverse historical, social, political, and economic factors. The University engages in teaching, research, and service to expand and discover knowledge, promote educational enlightenment, inculcate intellectual rigor, and improve understanding with the ultimate end of uplifting humankind. Education takes place most productively among persons with differing social backgrounds, economic circumstances, personal characteristics, philosophical outlooks, life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, expectations, and aspirations, to mention some salient factors. The University works to assure that we have a complement of students, faculty, and staff that broadly reflects the ways in which people differ. We speak of these differences as representing “diversity.”

Core Values With Respect to Diversity

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as an educational institution, must be committed to the following core values with respect to diversity:

• The University supports intellectual freedom, promotes personal integrity and justice, and pursues values that foster enlightened leadership devoted to improving the conditions of human life in the state, the nation, and the world.
• The University believes that it can achieve its educational, research, and service mission only by creating and sustaining an environment in which students, faculty, and staff represent diversity, for example, of social backgrounds, economic circumstances, personal characteristics, philosophical outlooks, life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, expectations, and aspirations, to mention some salient factors.
• The University will achieve and maintain diversity on the campus through the admission of students and employment of faculty and staff who broadly reflect the ways in which we differ.
• The University promotes intellectual growth and derives the educational benefits of diversity by creating opportunities for intense dialogue and rigorous analysis and by fostering mutually beneficial interactions among members of the community.
• The University provides an environment that values and respects civility and cordiality of discourse in order that all members of a diverse community feel welcomed and feel free to express their ideas without fear of reprisal.

 

 

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© 2010 Diversity & Multicultural Affairs for The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill