Miami University joins commitment to advance workplace diversity and inclusion
On behalf of Miami University, President Greg Crawford today joins a growing coalition pledging to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
President Greg Crawford
Only one month after 175 CEOs came together to launch the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, more than 100 additional CEOs/presidents have taken the pledge, committing themselves and the organizations they lead to advance diversity and inclusion.
Crawford emphasized the importance of diversity and inclusion his first week on the job. From a letter to the community July 8, 2016, “At Miami, inclusive excellence – or the recognition that our future success depends on how we foster, value, welcome, and engage a rich diversity of faculty, students, staff, and alumni – must become part of our institutional DNA. We cannot be excellent unless 1) we are diverse in the broadest sense of the word, and 2) we have an environment where our students, colleagues, and community members know the importance of their contributions and are able to flourish.”
By signing on to this pledge, Miami commits to cultivating a workplace where diverse perspectives and experiences are welcomed and respected and where employees feel encouraged to discuss diversity and inclusion. Specifically, CEOs and presidents commit to:
- Continue to cultivate workplaces that support open dialogue on complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion.
- Implement and expand unconscious bias education.
- Share best known—and unsuccessful—actions.
The collective of more than 270 signatories have already shared nearly 200 best known actions, exchanging tangible learning opportunities and creating collaborative conversations via the initiative’s unified hub, CEOAction.com.
Miami has submitted these existing actions:
- Shared goals of education and research with the Miami Tribe at the Myaamia Center on Miami’s Oxford campus.
- Support for web-based, digital and emerging technologies within an accessible and inclusive work and learning environment through for example, the Office for Accessible Technology Services and the Student Disability Services office.
- The Heanon Wilkins Fellows Program, supporting a culturally diverse faculty member with mentoring, a faculty-equivalent salary and rank, a research stipend, and the potential to obtain a future tenure-track position.
CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ is cultivating a new type of ecosystem centered on collaboration and sharing ways to cultivate more diverse and inclusive workplace environments. As of today, Miami is one of six universities – three private and three public – and a medical school signing the pledge.
New research from the Center for Talent Innovation, a nonprofit think tank, found that when employees can discuss the topic of race relations at work, they feel significantly more included and that their ideas are heard and recognized.
The CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ is led by a steering committee of leaders from Procter & Gamble, PwC, Accenture, BCG, Deloitte US, The Executive Leadership Council, EY, General Atlantic, KPMG, New York Life. The coalition represents nearly 70 industries, all 50 U.S. states and millions of employees globally.
