As part of the college’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, here are a few of the initiatives recently underway intended to strengthen that commitment. 
(Updated October 2022)

• The Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has partnered with CLA’s Office of Undergraduate Education to offer a one-day professional development event focused on teaching and learning. The Day of Teaching and Learning, scheduled for January 11, 2023, features scholars whose foundational knowledge is centered on curricula and pedagogy intersecting with diversity and anti-racism.
• The Transformational Conversations Book Club Series, a partnership with the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies (RIDGS), continues. The series invites members of the CLA community to read books centered on diverse topics and discuss the content and its relationship to their identity and role within CLA. The programming culminates with the members presenting to the larger community reflecting on their learning and how to incorporate practices taken from the text. This fall the Book Club is reading Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (by Isabel Wilkerson), A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota (edited by Sun Yung Shin), and Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century (edited by Alice Wong).
• Thirty-three members of the UMN community, including 15 members of the CLA community, are now Courageous Conversations about Race Certified Practitioners. In 2022–23, CLA’s Dean’s Group will read Glenn Singleton’s Courageous Conversations about Race together and build their personal and collegiate racial equity understanding and leadership together. 
• CLA has dedicated its November Professional Development Day as one where those who participate should prioritize professional development opportunities that enhance their capacity to advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the college. This is the first time that CLA’s Professional Development Day has had a focus. 
• The CLA Call-in is an initiative born out of the Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion to (re)introduce topics related to DEI to the CLA community in a brief but substantive way. The Call-in is a weekly newsletter that offers definitions, contexts related to higher education and the CLA community, and the relationship between these topics and the impact they have on students, faculty, and staff. 
• CLA’s Administrative Leaders Program has been restructured to include an intentional focus on enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion content as part of the curriculum, in addition to ensuring that program materials, discussion questions, and spaces used are accessible and inclusive of various identities. 
• The Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is a co-sponsor for the CLA Indigenous Staff and Staff of Color Community’s inaugural StriDEIng for Equity 5K, which in addition to providing a fun way for members of the U of M community who care about diversity, equity, and inclusion to gather, will also raise funds to support professional development for CLA-ISSCC members. 
• The Center for Canon Expansion and Change (CCEC) was founded in the Department of Philosophy in 2021 by faculty members Jessica Gordon-Roth, Dwight K. Lewis, Jr., and Bennett McNulty with the goal of effecting meaningful change in the way that philosophy is done, understood, organized, and—especially—taught. CCEC focuses on supporting instructors who want to teach neglected figures or a new canon of early modern philosophy, but otherwise lack the resources to do so. CCEC aims to teach instructors how to create a safe and vibrant learning environment that speaks to a multitude of perspectives and allows students to learn about philosophers with voices like their own.
• Careers Beyond Academia for First-Gen Doctoral Students in CLA, funded by the University’s First-Gen Institute, is a new workshop supporting first-generation PhD students in their career development beyond the tenure track. In six meetings over the course of the academic year 2022–23, a cohort of six students will work through exercises aimed at career exploration, preparation of application materials, networking, and the interview and negotiation process. 

Related Links

At the University of Minnesota, we value having a diversity of views and experiences that enrich our campus community and foster excellence. We are dedicated to creating a campus culture that respects everyone equally. Learn more about working at the University of Minnesota. 

Fall 2021

Indigenous Staff & Staff of Color Community

CLA's Indigenous Staff & Staff of Color Community promotes personal and professional growth through shared experiences, resources, and strategies for staff of color. It launched in December 2017 to help advance the College’s goal of cultivating a welcoming and respectful climate in its diverse intellectual community. It is an active organization that includes members from throughout the College. To learn more about this community, view their On Purpose profile or visit The Neighborhood (CLA's intranet).

Fall 2021 Student Population

Undergraduate

CLA students are 42.0% of the total UMN-Twin Cities (TC) undergraduate degree-seeking population. Overwhelmingly, CLA students are an even larger percentage of the TC student population among numerous groups that enhance the University’s diversity. CLA students comprise:

• 39.3% of all TC students who identify as Asian
• 45.8% of all TC multi-racial students
• 46.6% of all TC female students
• 46.8% of all TC international students
• 46.8% of all TC BIPOC students
• 48.2% of all TC first-generation students
• 49.7% of all TC Chicano/a & Latino/a students
• 51.1% of all TC Pell-eligible students
• 57.0% of all TC Black students
• 63.2% of all TC American Indian students

Doctoral

At the doctoral level, CLA students are 19.3% of the total Twin Cities doctoral population. CLA doctoral students comprise:

• 19.9% of Twin Cities female doctoral students
• 20.2% of Black students
• 20.4% of BIPOC students
• 20.5% of multi-racial students
• 28.0% of Chicano/a & Latino/a students
• 29.0% of American Indian students

Undergraduate Students

The CLA Undergraduate Education staff actively promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Graduate Students

Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Established in 2015, the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies (RIDGS) in the College of Liberal Arts was created to support innovative research, teaching, and community-building for scholars engaged with issues of race, indigeneity, disability, gender, and sexuality. RIDGS is dedicated to bringing faculty and students together to pursue lines of inquiry that challenge systems of power and inequality, assert human dignity, and imagine social transformation. Learn more about the Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Initiative.

In August 2020, RIDGS launched a collection of online resources about racial justice at the University of Minnesota.

CLA is also a supporter and donor to the CLA-faculty-led Black Midwest Initiative, a "collective of scholars, students, artists, organizers, and community-involved people who are committed to advocating for the lives of people of African descent as they are situated throughout the Midwest and Rust Belt regions of the United States."

Faculty Expertise Around Issues of Race, Justice, Dignity, and Respect

Our faculty, across a wide range of departments, are bringing their insights and expertise to benefit and teach local, national, and international communities. This depth of understanding leads to their being called upon by the media for insights and clarity—especially during times of tragedy. 

Departmental Statements of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

In addition to our college-wide commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, several departments have shared their commitments on their websites. Read about them in the links below.

• Anthropology
• Communication Studies
• English
• Geography, Environment & Society
• History
• Human Rights Program
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Spanish & Portuguese Studies
• Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
• Statistics
• Writing Studies