About the Office

The Office for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (OIDEI) carries a long tradition of holding and creating space for individuals and communities to amplify their voices; express their needs and concerns; and participate in social action. As populations continue to diversify on and off campus, we are identifying new ways to ensure everyone has open access to the marketplace of ideas and experiences made readily available at Central Michigan University.

True allyship is reflected in an institutional attitude where acceptance, culture, and equity are the expectation. OIDEI sets the standard for encouraging authentic allyship by providing education and professional development that ensures institutional and individual allyship is not performative. When we fully step into the ally space, we do so understanding the ways in which it benefits the whole.

The Office for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strives for a campus culture where everyone is welcomed and appreciated. We endeavor to achieve these goals through the cultivation of more inclusive praxis, curricula, pedagogy, programs, and policies to ensure a sense of security and belonging throughout campus.

Diversity Work seeks to lessen homogeneity to strengthen communities, environments, and ecosystems. Diversity offers choice, options, and more equitable representation across curricula, teaching, policy, and practice. It also nurtures innovation, creativity, and a richness of experience. 

Our office develops and cultivates resources that individuals or departments can utilize to improve their awareness and clarity of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and belonging (DEIJB). Education that includes a DEIJB framework supports the confidence to act when needed. By applying this knowledge, we can all take part in the transformation of our campus culture to best reflect our universally shared values of dignity, respect and belonging. Education remains at the core of our work. Diversity Education is provided for staff, faculty, students, and community members on cultural competency in the classroom, on campus, and within the community.

Equity is a mindfulness towards ensuring that the opportunities and resources made readily available to all, are also cultivated and shared in a manner that takes context, nuance, and specificity into account. 

Growth that is positive, inspirational and fearless is significant to purposefully removing barriers to equity and feelings of belonging. Healthy social change is transformative and seeks to avoid harm. When harm occurs, healthy social change permits correction that restores and is non-retaliatory.

Inclusion is the act of operationalizing diversity to ensure communities, departments, and units provide equitable opportunities for engagement to a diverse population. Diversity offers a seat at the table; inclusion ensures everyone at the table feels heard and valued. On college campuses, inclusion can emerge in the form of financial equity, social diversity, curricular diversity, and structural diversity. 

Justice seeks to remedy inequities that stem from systemic oppression and other social issues. from policy implementation to procedural reviews, justice targets, bias, discrimination, and stratification with intentionality and offers corrective action. It involves reflexivity, interrogation, and a willingness to invest in holistic improvements. At CMU, justice is diversity, equity, and inclusion put into practice. 

Establishing diversity-conscious standards is essential to engaging in transformational leadership across the University. We provide leadership around DEIJB efforts, while recognizing and encouraging opportunities for collaboration across units. Solid leadership stands on the foundation of integrity, and we expect accountability to be a fundamental component of demonstrating principled leadership.