OHE Communication: October 21, 2024
Dear Campus Colleagues,
As we interact with faculty and staff members on campus, we have been asked some questions pertaining to the Office of Holistic Excellence (OHE), and have heard some misconceptions. To address this, we have linked previous communication pertaining to the focus and purpose of OHE below. We also share information through an FAQ format. We hope you find this helpful.
Please note that in early November faculty and staff will receive an email from OHE with a link to a 5-item survey assessing campus climate. We will be using this survey to benchmark our progress as a campus annually and would appreciate input from as many faculty and staff as possible. When you receive this survey, please take 2 minutes to respond.
We look forward to engaging with you in fostering a vibrant, supportive, and inclusive place to work, learn, and grow.
Sincerely,
Rima Berry-Hung
Shareia Carter
Marie Waung
OHE Co-Directors
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Q: Is this new office a way to reduce our focus on DEI?
A: The chancellor has been unequivocal and clear that he is strongly committed to the underpinning concept and goals of DEI but he thinks, and we agree, that our campus can do better. In essence OHE is DEI PLUS. We remain strongly focused on diversity and inclusion; however, we are taking a deeper and more innovative approach. Our goal is to develop fertile ground by building empathy through storytelling and advancing flexible, creative thinking through exposure to different ways of knowing. As we enrich the “soil” upon which our interactions with one another are based, this will enhance our ability to facilitate true inclusion and promote innovative thinking and learning; our hope is that the DEI seeds that we plant will thrive in this enriched setting. Our commitment to creating access to a Michigan degree for all residents of southeast Michigan, and beyond, and making all community members feel welcome to share their stories remains a top priority.
Q: How is the word "holistic" being used in the name of the office? What does it mean?
A: “Holistic” reflects the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole. This aligns with the intellectual view that knowledge is intrinsically unified; and that connections exist across a variety of diverse disciplines. When applied to the UM-Dearborn student and employee experience, as a campus we take a holistic perspective; we are focused on the whole person. For example, admissions decisions are holistic in nature; a student is more than a test score or GPA. We provide holistic assistance through Dearborn Support and the SOAR program, through wrap-around services to our students. Similarly, Academic Advising, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and Disability and Accessibility Services recognize the entire student. For employees, we have the Faculty and Staff Counseling and Consultation Office (FASSCO) and staff engagement events and awards. In sum, the term holistic aligns with an intellectual, multidisciplinary way of thinking, knowing, creating, and communicating, and reflects the value we place on the whole student and the whole employee.
Q: How do you plan to engage campus members in this work?
A: We are engaging campus in a variety of ways, from OHE committees to a storytelling initiative to leveraging faculty expertise in the development of a Native Lands Acknowledgement to grant proposals that rely heavily on faculty knowledge and expertise.
- OHE Steering Committee
- OHE Student Recruitment, Retention, and DEI Committee
- OHE Storytelling Initiative - resources are now available through OHE to campus members engaged in storytelling in their research, teaching, or staff programming; we will work with the academic units to collect examples of research and teaching linked with storytelling and maintain a repository to reflect the storytelling culture that we are building.
- Native Lands Acknowledgement - developed with assistance from faculty with teaching or research expertise associated with Native peoples.
- Anti-Racism Grant - $50,000 grant received to use “Ways of Knowing” and Storytelling as diversity mechanisms. This work will be conducted through a series of speakers/workshops aimed at Honors Program students.
- Humanities, CECS and Artificial Intelligence Grant - $50,000 grant proposal, under review; to integrate the humanities and technology (i.e., artificial intelligence) with a focus on ethics, bias, and what it means to be human.
Q: How does OHE connect with work from the 2020-2021 DEI working subgroups?
A: We are connecting past and present work. See summary in this table.
Q: How will we know if OHE is successful?
A: We have Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) that align with the OHE mission.
New KPI's
Increase the number of:
- Campus members engaged in empathy and inclusion activities.
- Grants written with OHE/DEI components.
- Campus members involved in diversity of thought activities.
- Courses with content and activities aligned with holistic excellence (e.g., diversity of thought; curiosity; mental fortitude and grit; civil discourse, reasoned argument, and truth seeking)
Continuing DEI KPI's
Increase the:
- Diversity of our faculty, staff, and students.
- Percentage of leaders who have attended DEI training in the last year.