Office of Inclusive Excellence and Organizational Equity

Vision: To create a culture of inclusive excellence by building an action-oriented, transformative environment where all identities and communities can thrive.

Who are we: The Office of Inclusive Excellence and Organizational Equity within the College of Letters & Science is firmly committed to creating a transformative community with impact beyond the classroom to every citizen of the state and beyond through our commitment to teaching, research and service to activate the Wisconsin Idea.

We use the AAC&U Framework for Inclusive Excellence (2015), which provides a rationale, tools, and strategies for building a culture of inclusive excellence in higher education. Because inclusive excellence has to ensure organizations and units who are also committed to equity internally, we also are committed to organizational equity, and use a Shared Equity Leadership Model (American Council on Education). “In the shared equity leadership framework, a greater number of individuals engage in leadership across an institution and leverage multiple perspectives and expertise to transform conditions of campus inequity.”

Our “flat” organizational structure is designed to create an Office who guides, consults, and influences College- and Department-wide decisions. Our faculty fellow model includes key areas within the priorities we want to address, including a faculty co-director for the Graduate Research Scholars, a faculty co-chair for the Inclusive Excellence Committee at the College level, and a faculty who develops pathway and support programs for L&S faculty and staff. We also house the Graduate Research Scholars program director and the Sloan Center Director, currently in development but will dovetail with the STEM IE Leads programming and initiatives.