Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy

Applies to students, faculty, administrators, and staff 

College Mission Statement

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine is committed to educating exemplary physicians and scholars, discovering, and disseminating new knowledge, and providing service at home and abroad. We enhance our communities by providing outstanding primary and specialty care, promoting the dignity and inclusion of all people, and responding to the needs of the medically underserved.

Policy Statement

The Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (CHM) is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion for all members of the academic community, including students, faculty, administration, and staff in alignment with the college mission to educate exemplary physicians and scholars, to discover and disseminate new knowledge, to provide service at home and abroad, and to respond to the needs of the medically underserved. 

The College of Human Medicine (CHM) strives to develop an academic community to best meet the needs of the diverse population of the state of Michigan. CHM seeks to promote equitable and inclusive educational opportunities for every individual including those from groups who are under-represented in medicine (Black/African American, Hispanic/Latine, and American Indian/Alaskan Natives), from rural and urban medically underserved communities, first-generation college, and from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. CHM is committed to embracing diverse identities, perspectives, and experiences and creating a culture of belonging for all. This commitment aligns with the Michigan State University (MSU) Strategic Plan, MSU 2030: Empowering Excellence, Advancing Equity, and Expanding Impact (https://strategicplan.msu.edu/strategic-plan), and the MSU Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report and Plan (https://president.msu.edu/initiatives/dei-plan/dei-report-and-plan.html).

Definitions

Adapted from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)

Diversity: Individual differences, (e.g., personality, prior knowledge, and life experiences), group and social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, indigeneity, class, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, country of origin, and (dis)ability), historically underrepresented populations, and cultural, political, religious, or other affiliations.

Inclusion: The active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity — in the curriculum, in the co- curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect — in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions.

Equity: The creation of opportunities for historically underrepresented populations to have equal access to and participate in educational programs that are capable of closing the achievement gaps in student success and completion.

Inclusive Excellence: Designed to help colleges and universities integrate diversity, equity, and educational quality efforts into their missions and institutional operations. It calls for higher education to address diversity, inclusion, and equity as critical to the well-being of democratic culture. It is an active process through which colleges and universities achieve excellence in learning, teaching, student development, institutional functioning, and engagement in local and global communities.

Responsibilities

  • Dean
  • Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  • Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion
  • Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Staff Administration
  • Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education
  • Associate Dean for Student Affairs
  • Assistant Dean for Admissions
  • Other CHM Administrators

Procedures

The following actions and organizational structure were implemented by the College of Human Medicine to further diversity goals, and to demonstrate its commitment to inclusive excellence through its leadership, policies, and practices.

Leadership

  1. The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) is led by the Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion (SADDI) who reports directly to the Dean. Positions in support of the Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion (SADDI) include (with future additions or deletions based on programmatic need, as approved by the dean):
    • Assistant Dean for Diversity and Cultural Initiatives
    • Diversity Curriculum Faculty Liaison
    • Faculty Excellence Advocate
    • Diversity Program Coordinator

  2. The Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, who is a standing guest of the College Advisory Council (CAC), works in close collaboration with the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Staff Administration, and the Senior Associate Dean for Research, who are also standing guests to the College Advisory Council, as well as the associate and assistant deans who report to these individuals. The College Advisory Council is the representative elected faculty governance group for the College of Human Medicine.

  3. The College of Human Medicine has an established Dean’s Advisory Committee on Diversity that is a standing committee per the College of Human Medicine Bylaws of the Faculty. The committee consists of twenty-one (21) elected voting members and two (2) appointed members, including faculty, staff, and students. The Dean, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Cultural Initiatives, and Faculty Excellence Advocate(s) serve as ex-officio members. The charge to the committee per the college bylaws is “to serve as a collective voice to the Dean regarding diversity issues in the college including but not limited to input on LCME metrics, implementation of college diversity climate assessments and surveys, strategies to improve the diversity of faculty and staff to address needs across the mission areas, and of departmental and college metrics for diversity, equity and inclusion.”

  4. The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is responsible for the coordination of programs and initiatives to guide efforts to promote inclusive excellence. The mission of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is to provide high quality programs and services to promote outreach to the community, cultural diversity, inclusion, cultural humility, and cultural competence for the students, faculty, and staff of CHM.

  5. CHM Leadership, faculty and staff participate in periodic implicit bias training. Standing committee members, including, but not limited to, those serving on the Committee on Admissions, Curriculum Committee, Reappointment Promotion and Tenure Committee, College Advisory Committee, designated search committees, and other major college subcommittees will complete annual implicit bias training.

Awareness

The Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion will provide students, faculty, and staff information regarding the college’s mission to foster a diverse and inclusive environment during orientation for students, onboarding for faculty and staff, and periodically thereafter. The college will include in its internal newsletter and at town hall meetings with the Dean, additional information about the college commitment to inclusive excellence.

Evaluation

CHM educational and diversity administrators will regularly assess and evaluate the climate of the college and monitor the effectiveness of its diversity and inclusion initiatives. CHM will use these evaluations to continuously improve the quality of education, research, and outreach.

Commitment Across Departments

All departments in the college will be encouraged to identify processes and programs to achieve the diversity goals of the university and college, particularly as they pertain to faculty, staff, students, and trainees in each department. For example, this could include appointment of a diversity champion, a vice chair for diversity, and/or a diversity committee. However, other approaches may be equally acceptable, depending upon the size and complexity of a specific department. Michigan State University has both a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan and a Strategic Plan with a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Pillar. CHM has a Strategic Plan with a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strand that intersects with each of the pillars.

Admissions Strategies

CHM Office of Admissions and the Committee on Admissions uses a holistic review process in its efforts to identify applicants from a broad range of diverse backgrounds who demonstrate alignment with the mission of the college. The current Admissions Diversity Statement is as follows: “In an attempt to best meet the needs of the extremely diverse population of people from Michigan and beyond, the College of Human Medicine’s admissions process uses a balanced and holistic approach that considers an applicant’s academic metrics, experiences, and personal characteristics to achieve the educational benefits of a diverse student body. It also recognizes that many applicants who are under-represented in medicine come from geographic, socioeconomic, and educational disadvantaged backgrounds and that people from these backgrounds are more likely than others to eventually serve disadvantaged, underserved, and marginalized populations. As such, the process also allows for consideration of disadvantaged status in the decision-making process.”  The Office of Admissions provides guidance to the Committee on Admissions following the above Admissions Statement on Diversity.

The American Medical Colleges Application Service (AMCAS) application provides student self-reported data that include socioeconomic backgrounds, geographic backgrounds, and educational backgrounds.

The applicants with SES Disadvantaged Indicator E01 or E02 status as defined in the AMCAS Application to medical school are considered disadvantaged. It is intended to contextualize application information as a part of a holistic review process. The E01 and E02 designations are for applicants considered at the lowest end of socio-economic status.

A significant portion of the State of Michigan is rural. CHM has devoted significant focus to identifying and preparing students from rural backgrounds to provide care to the underserved in rural communities. Students are designated as having a rural background based on the federal designation of the location of their high school, or via self-reporting of rural status on their AMCAS application. Furthermore, students who are admitted to the Leadership in Rural Medicine Certificate Program also fall into this category.

Workforce Recruitment Priorities

  1. The Dean’s Advisory Committee on Diversity will determine priority groups for recruitment and revise them, as needed, annually to align with the mission of the college and reflect the needs of the State of Michigan.
  2. Recruitment initiatives and programs developed to meet these priorities will use metrics to monitor success and make improvements, as needed.

Education

The CHM Office of Academic Affairs, Office of Undergraduate Medical Education, and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will collaborate to assess and integrate education on diversity and inclusion into the curriculum to better prepare students to address health disparities in their work and promote a work environment that fosters inclusivity. The Council on Diversity Education (CODE) will provide advice and input on this process. The CHM Curriculum Committee will approve the addition of required curricular content, including content that addresses:

  1. Social determinants of health, health disparities, health equity
  2. Cultural humility, cultural competency, structural competency, conscious and unconscious bias

Retention of Students, Faculty and Staff

CHM will implement, monitor, and evaluate all programs and initiatives to retain students, faculty, and staff to achieve inclusive excellence. Responsibilities for these areas and programs will be in collaboration between the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the Office of Academic Affairs, the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education, the Office of Student Affairs (for students), and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Staff Administration (for faculty and staff).

Endorsed 03/02/2023 rev. Dean’s Advisory Committee on Diversity