Unit Spotlights

As CAI continues to grow, creating clear career pathways across teams has become a vital step in the organizational and staff development portfolio of work that the Center leads. The goal throughout this process has been to develop clearly defined individual role criteria and responsibilities as well as organizational and domain competencies in support of career-related reports and conversations among supervisors. This resource was made available to all CAI staff in April and has been foundational to shaping career development and performance conversations since that time. Staff are able to speak with more specificity about their own career interests and how those do or do not align with existing CAI roles. They can also engage supervisors in more intentional conversations about their own job performance and how it aligns with desired growth and organizational needs.

In particular, the program focuses on transfer students supported by the State's Michigan Reconnect program, which includes students from underrepresented minority, low socioeconomic status, First Gen, veteran, and other non-traditional backgrounds. The goal is to create a transfer-receptive culture through in-person recruiting at all in-state community colleges; 1:1 pre-transfer advising and virtual information sessions; on-campus programming for admitted and enrolled transfer students; and consultations with LSA academic departments. The Transfer Student Center serves as a virtual and physical resource for new and continuing transfer students. In addition, a Transfer Bridges to the Humanities grant from the Mellon Foundation is providing engaged learning opportunities in the humanities for students at three community colleges before and after they transfer.

Progress was evident in 2024. Applications from students transferring from Michigan community colleges increased 7%, the number of these students admitted increased by 12.9%, and the number who matriculated increased by 16%. Among the applicants from Michigan community college students who identify as Black, Hispanic or Native American, new transfer applications increased by 5.3 %, admissions increased by 17.6 %, matriculants grew by 15.5 %.

For nontraditional students, many career development opportunities are cost-prohibitive. The Career Development Grant program was developed in response to numerous requests from CEW+ scholarship recipients for funding to attend conferences or help pay for other career-advancing expenses unrelated to emergency funding. Students who meet eligibility criteria can apply for one grant annually. In its first year, the program awarded a total of $34,607 to 32 students for: 20 conferences, 3 study abroad programs, 2 membership fees in professional organizations, 2 short-term specialized trainings, 4 workshops and other events, and 1 licensing exam fee.

Many CEW+ constituents hail from underserved communities at disproportionate risk of poverty. Outstanding student account balances can prevent them from registering for classes, which may affect their ability to graduate on time or continue their education. In Fall 2023, CEW+ launched a pilot of its Graduation Grant program, which continued in Winter and Spring terms of 2024. In all, 26 students received a total of $95,000, averaging $3,653 per award. Over 90% of recipients belonged to 2+ minority communities; a third were first-generation students; more than 30 identified as LGBTQIA2S+; people of color comprised nearly 80% of recipients; and just under 67% were international students.

Launched in March 2024, the revamped onboarding process includes a program that matches new employees with volunteer Peer Mentors for informal meetings and “help” sessions during the first six months of employment. The mentors support integration into the organization—and in some cases to the U-M and Washtenaw County—and are selected from outside the new employee’s work group whenever possible to promote connectivity across teams. In developing the process, DMC staff conducted confidential interviews with recently-onboarded employees and sent out an anonymous survey to all full-time staff. One theme that emerged was the key role of interpersonal connections in onboarding and successful workplace integration. This initiative serves to rectify previous inconsistencies in the onboarding process by ensuring that every employee is connected to at least one co-worker. The new process also promotes equity and inclusivity by ensuring that all hires receive the same treatment and the same information.

Each summer, Associate Dean Dr. Todd Ester and the school’s DEI team welcome eager undergraduates from around the country for an intensive six-week introduction to the challenges and rewards of dental education. Launched in 1994 with a federal Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) Grant, PFS addresses the lack of diversity in dentistry head-on. As it has since the beginning, the program prepares students from disadvantaged backgrounds for the Dental Admission Test (DAT) through robust tutoring. Equally important, it demystifies the profession through hands-on dental school experiences, such as observing patient treatments in clinics and taking impressions of teeth in order to make mouthguards. These opportunities are enhanced by the personal mentorship of faculty, dental students and practicing dentists who volunteer their time and provide insight and encouragement. This strategic initiative dovetails with growing national movements for DEI championed by the American Dental Association (ADA), the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), the Michigan Dental Association (MDA) and others.

Despite major efforts by NIH, there continue to be substantial social inequities among grant recipients. ISR is committed to broadly diversifying the next generation of social scientists nationwide and beyond. Using the NIH Diversity Supplement mechanism, the Institute created a recruitment and proposal development program to connect scholars with one of its numerous and renowned social science projects. Set to launch in Fall 2024, this program will leverage ISR’s world-renowned researchers to bring scholars here to train for their next career stage. Once admitted, all pre- and post-doctoral trainees will participate in a weekly professional development curriculum to ensure their integration into the ISR network. This final version of the program is the result of substantial focus group data collection, meetings with NIH and pilot testing of recruitment, proposal development and curriculum activities since October 2023.

Middle school mathematics courses are gateways to college and careers in the health sciences. Students who lag in math proficiency are less likely to be college-ready in high school, narrowing their educational and career opportunities. Michigan Medicine worked to address that problem by providing sixth-grade students at Scarlett and Ypsilanti Community Middle Schools with weekly, culturally relevant mathematics coaching and monthly health science learning experiences. A total of 11 U-M graduate and undergraduate students worked with 28 sixth-grade students in weekly coaching sessions. In addition, more than 15 faculty, house officers, staff, and graduate students engaged with the middle school students across 11 specialty areas, including dermatology, dentistry, emergency medicine, pediatric and plastic surgery, neurology, otolaryngology, pediatric orthopedics and pharmacology. At the end of the program, 95% of students self-reported they learned helpful math strategies to support their success, and 85% of all students self-reported the coaching sessions helped them to make more real-life connections to math.

The P-20 - a preschool through undergraduate education program -educational campus is a neighborhood-based, prenatal-to-career public education setting offering a range of educational opportunities for children, youth and adults. The campus also includes the first of its kind Michigan Education Teaching School, an educator preparation and residency program. The Teaching School combines robust pre-service training with a three-year residency to ensure that graduates can provide optimal project- and place-based education. At full capacity, the school will serve roughly 1,000 Detroit children. Every Marygrove program and partner shares two fundamental goals: educating children and educating the professionals who serve them, including teachers, school leaders, social workers, nurses, dentists and physicians. The MLC also serves as a site for Educator Preparation Program placements, giving graduates the opportunity to teach in a school committed to social justice. Marsal colleagues are learning from and with our colleagues across the Marygrove Learning Community about what it takes to do collective work, how to build trust and respect among community partners, and how to work through differences in discourse, policy, and practice, all dimensions of constructing diverse, inclusive, just, and equitable education spaces. Founding partners include the U-M Marsal School of Education, Detroit Public Schools Community District, the Kresge Foundation, and the Marygrove Conservancy.

The initiative focuses on recruiting high-achieving students who meet the Early Action Deadline, offering activities such as campus visits, interactive sessions with the U-M Financial Aid Outreach team, writing workshops by the Sweetland Center for Writing, and application review sessions with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions in Detroit. Specifically, dedicated campus visits for admitted students foster personal networks and a strong sense of community among U-M student leaders, faculty, and alumni.

The program has shown impressive results, with multiple students from the inaugural cohort committing to U-M Ann Arbor and U-M Dearborn. Faculty engagement through events like Faculty Connections has significantly influenced students' commitment decisions. The Raise Scholars program exemplifies the dedication of the Center for Educational Outreach (CEO) to creating pathways for talented students to thrive at the University of Michigan, with ongoing expansion and impactful efforts planned for the future.

Data indicates that OUD currently attracts more diverse pools of applicants than what U-M’s “applicant summary report” indicates is available in the market. Analysis of aggregate data indicates that the office accounts for and appropriately addresses any potential implicit bias in key decision points. As one example, 32% of current-year hires are people of color, compared to an average 18% during DEI 1.0 (FY17-FY21). The availability data shows that the minimum percentage for applicants of color is 16% versus the actual percentage for applicants of color is 32%. OUD is optimizing outreach efforts and post-search data evaluation indicates that approximately 25% of candidates at each stage of a search process self-identified as candidates of color.

Also, access to new technology has enabled OUD to be more intentional regarding its recruitment activities. Adding anti-bias steps to the process has not only helped in hiring broadly diverse talent but, during the last year, has reduced the unit’s average time to fill a position from 72 to 65 days. Also, with changes implemented into the evaluation process as well as additional training opportunities, hiring managers have become more aware of their own implicit biases and are able to challenge or check those biases with the OUD People & Culture Talent Acquisition Team (bias checker). Along with DEI training, these process changes have increased OUD’s ability to attract applicants from broadly diverse backgrounds.

Since 2017, the Community College Summer Institute (CCSI) has hosted 231 Fellows, with 28% matriculating into the School of Information and 18% into other University of Michigan programs. The 2023 cohort saw 50% of its participants admitted to UMSI, marking a record high. Additionally, CCSI 2024 witnessed a 63% increase in applications and a 29% rise in attendance.

Michigan school counselors, with an average caseload of 598—over twice the recommended 250:1 ratio—face challenges in supporting students' college and career exploration.

For three years UMSI has provided professional development for K-12 school counselors to foster partnerships, and enhance post-secondary exploration for students. These efforts aim to support students, in particular historically marginalized students by making educational opportunities in information science more accessible.

The LSA Collegiate Fellows 2.0 hiring program will recruit 20 faculty either as postdoctoral scholars with concurrent offers of tenure-track positions to follow the fellowship period, or directly into tenure-track positions. The new LSA Senior Collegiate Fellows hiring program seeks to recruit 12 tenured faculty recently appointed to the associate professor rank who have demonstrated commitments, engagements and career-stage appropriate leadership relating to DEI. The shared goal of these programs is to recruit, support, and retain exceptional faculty who are committed to building a broadly diverse intellectual community. During AY2024, the College hosted four sessions on the hiring programs for unit leaders, and hired 8 faculty members as LSA Collegiate Fellows and 2 faculty members as LSA Senior Collegiate Fellows.

This Fall, the College welcomes four scholars from Africa—representing South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria—for five-month appointments. These visiting scholars, drawn from both established and emerging faculty in the African Diaspora, will co-present lectures, exhibitions, and workshops throughout Taubman College. Their diverse pedagogical approaches are expected to enrich and diversify the existing curriculum in architecture and urban planning. By staggering their visits across the academic year, the College maximizes opportunities for each scholar to engage fully with the community, showcase their work, and participate in events such as lectures, symposia, and exhibitions. These engagements aim to foster long-term connections, paving the way for potential collaborations, student exchanges, and faculty partnerships between Taubman and African institutions.

Website: https://africa-alliance.org/