Our forthcoming Inclusive Excellence (IE) Action Plan will serve as a roadmap to advance diversity, equity and inclusion throughout UNC Charlotte. Central to this plan, is the shared understanding that our University’s success is dependent on and tied directly to how well we value, engage and include the rich diversity of our community members, including students, employees, alumni and friends. To get there, we must be deliberate in our approach and provide measurable goals to reach our institutional aspirations.
ie action plan strategic goals
Strengthen Pathways to Institutional Access and Success
Enhance access, recruitment, retention and success (education and career) of all students, employees and community stakeholders–with an increased emphasis on historically underrepresented and minoritized communities.
- GOAL A1: Provide students a unique, comprehensive, intellectually rigorous education — referred to as the "Charlotte Model" — to be delivered through enhanced pedagogy and transformative co-curricular experiences and integrated with robust student success measures.
- GOAL A2: Ensure equity, accessibility, affordability and student success using the Charlotte model.
- GOAL A3: Prepare students to thrive in a changing world.
- GOAL A4: Strengthen curricula to educate students to become resilient and self-confident lifelong learners who are equipped to become leaders, engage meaningfully in careers and contribute to their communities.
- GOAL A5: Provide graduate students and postdoctoral trainees with high-quality mentoring, teaching, research training and professional development.
- GOAL B2: Advance the research mission by recruiting, nurturing and retaining world-class, diverse faculty, staff and students.
- GOAL B3: Expand postbaccalaureate education, doctoral studies and postdoctoral training and achieve the highest recognition for exemplary programs.
- GOAL B5: Bolster interdisciplinary, intra-institutional and inter-institutional, and global collaborations to address complex challenges.
- GOAL D3: Enhance policies, practices and resources to make the University a highly desirable place to live, learn and work.
- GOAL C4: Serve as an intellectual center for our students, employees, alumni and region.
Foster a Positive Campus Climate and Culture
Cultivate, integrate, improve and sustain a culture of belongingness where students and employees feel included and supported across all aspects of the university.
- GOAL A2: Ensure equity, accessibility, affordability and student success using the Charlotte model.
- GOAL D1: Foster a thriving culture based on integrity and respect that values all people and the planet.
- GOAL D3: Enhance policies, practices and resources to make the University a highly desirable place to live, learn and work.
- GOAL D4: Elevate and broaden student, alumni, faculty and staff engagement, investment and lifelong pride in the University.
Promote Inclusive Education and Transformational Scholarship
Provide innovative and transformational learning and research experiences enabling all students and employees to understand and advance inclusive excellence.
- GOAL A1: Provide students a unique, comprehensive, intellectually rigorous education — referred to as the "Charlotte Model" — to be delivered through enhanced pedagogy and transformative co-curricular experiences and integrated with robust student success measures.
- GOAL A3: Prepare students to thrive in a changing world.
- GOAL A4: Strengthen curricula to educate students to become resilient and self-confident lifelong learners who are equipped to become leaders,engage meaningfully in careers and contribute to their communities.
- GOAL A5: Provide graduate students and postdoctoral trainees with high-quality mentoring, teaching, research training and professional development.
- GOAL B1: Achieve national prominence as an emerging, top-tier research university.
- GOAL B4: Enhance the academic reputations of all colleges and foster signature areas of research, scholarship and creative discovery.
- GOAL B5: Bolster interdisciplinary, intra-institutional and inter-institutional, and global collaborations to address complex challenges.
- GOAL D5: Expand the use of community programs and activities, including athletics, performing arts, design, gardens and campus, to enhance the University’s reputation, grow enrollment and bolster engagement.
Sustain DEI Progress Through Investment and Infrastructure
Develop an institutional infrastructure of transparency and accountability to drive and sustain data-driven decision-making around diversity, equity and inclusion through systems, policies, procedures, resources and performance measures.
- GOAL C1: Fulfill our role as North Carolina’s urban research university to benefit our city, region and beyond by co-producing transformative solutions to societal issues and challenges.
- GOAL C2: Support the improvement of educational and socioeconomic outcomes for the Charlotte region by mobilizing University resources and community collaborations.
- GOAL C3: Elevate the University’s role as a talent and workforce cultivator to support community needs.
- GOAL C5: Serve North Carolinians more completely by valuing the region’s unique characteristics, histories and peoples to foster educational success among traditionally underserved groups within our state.
- GOAL D1: Foster a thriving culture based on integrity and respect that values all people and the planet.
- GOAL D2: Demonstrate leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion.
- GOAL D3: Enhance policies, practices and resources to make the University a highly desirable place to live, learn and work.
- GOAL D4: Elevate and broaden student, alumni, faculty and staff engagement, investment and lifelong pride in the University.
Enhance Inclusive Excellence Communication as Shared Language
Provide and promote clear, cohesive and comprehensive communication of how we define and operationalize inclusive excellence at UNC Charlotte through our goals, accomplishments, initiatives and innovations.
- GOAL D1: Foster a thriving culture based on integrity and respect that values all people and the planet.
- GOAL D3: Enhance policies, practices and resources to make the University a highly desirable place to live, learn and work.
- GOAL D4: Elevate and broaden student, alumni, faculty and staff engagement, investment and lifelong pride in the University.
- GOAL D5: Expand the use of community programs and activities, including athletics, performing arts, design, gardens and campus, to enhance the University’s reputation, grow enrollment and bolster engagement.
As we continue to develop our Inclusive Excellence Action Plan, here are some of the previous planning iterations.
1. Assess UNC Charlotte’s current DEI efforts for effectiveness and efficiency to determine how to best support them as well as to identify gaps, redundancy and innovations.
- Complete a listening tour of campus colleges and divisions to determine key issues, programs, plans, service gaps, innovative ideas, commitment to DEI, areas of positive energy and desire to move forward.
- Collect UNC Charlotte institutional data for the purpose of identifying gaps and critical areas related to diversity, equity and inclusion as well as positive outcomes.
- Represent UNC Charlotte at the UNC System level in regard to issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion, including by serving on System’s Diversity and Inclusion Council.
- Review the recommendations related to diversity and inclusion forwarded by the UNC System Racial Equity Task Force in fall 2020; prioritize these according to UNC Charlotte’s needs and goals.
- Conduct a University-wide survey on issues related to DEI in early 2021; compare outcomes to previous DEI surveys.
- Collaborate regularly with campus leaders, faculty, students, staff, and internal and external constituencies to ensure consistent DEI programing that creates an inclusive campus and supports the University’s values, by eliminating systemic barriers.
2. Collaborate with the Office of the Chancellor (and the forthcoming Chancellor’s Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council) to formulate the University’s DEI mission, goals and updated plan based on input from UNC Charlotte’s internal and external stakeholders.
- Form the Chancellor’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council to serve as an advisory and coordinating group.
- Partner with the University’s academic colleges and administrative units to identify DEI leaders and champions, who are able to aid the advancement of the University’s DEI goals and emphasize their priority to internal and external constituents.
- Align UNC Charlotte’s DEI priorities with the UNC System’s strategic plan for access, student success, and diverse and excellent institutions, as well as with the UNC System Racial Equity Task Force and UNC Charlotte’s current strategic plan.
- By April 2021, finalize UNC Charlotte’s 2021 Plan for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, designed to advance the University’s DEI efforts and achieve the goal of creating and ultimately, sustaining, a model campus for DEI.
The 2019 Progress Report for the UNC Charlotte Campus Plan for Diversity, Access, and Inclusion describes our progress toward the seven objectives of the Plan. Data are presented here to illustrate work in progress, achievements, and areas for improvement as we strive to create a strong, diverse and inclusive campus that is responsive to the needs of our region and state.
In preparation for the development of the Institutional Plan for 2016-2021, the Council on University Community revised the Plan with input from the African American and Latino caucuses as well as the Committee on the Future of the Faculty. This review affirmed the continued importance of the six objectives outlined in the 2008 Plan and acknowledged the progress toward our campus goal for diversity. Specific recommendations for improvement were incorporated into this revision, including action items to be reviewed and updated annually.
The Campus Plan for Diversity, Access, and Inclusion was adopted in November 2008. The Plan is aligned with and supports the mission of the University. Six objectives for diversity, access, and inclusion, are detailed in the Plan along with measures of success. The Council on University Community is responsible for assessing and reporting to the campus on progress toward the goals of the Diversity Plan. This report presents data to assess progress to date toward the Plan objectives. The report also documents some initiatives related to diversity that have been implemented across the University. Although this is not an exhaustive report of all the diversity-related programming or initiatives on campus, the programs highlighted illustrate some of the efforts to promote the Plan’s goals across the campus.