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Inclusive Excellence

Building a Culture of Inclusivity

We believe that a diverse and inclusive community of undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff is critical to providing an exceptional education, pushing the frontiers of knowledge, and fostering innovation both inside and outside of the classroom.

Dartmouth recognizes diversity as relating to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other legally protected status. We also recognize that diversity includes differences in socioeconomic background and other less easily defined measures that comprise the rich breadth of human experiences, talents, and attributes.

Research demonstrates that working and learning in an environment that is diverse in thought and perspective results in improvement in the educational quality and organizational outcomes at all levels and for people of all backgrounds. Our ability to enhance our understanding of the world and the people around us requires that we recruit, support, and retain students, faculty, and staff that encompass the full diversity of our popluation.

Inclusive Excellence and Plans for Diversity – The Charge

In May 2016, President Hanlon and former Provost Dever released Dartmouth's Action Plan for Inclusive Excellence, reaffirming our commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion on campus. The report called for the Arts & Sciences (A&S), as well as the professional schools, to develop a diversity and inclusion plan beginning with the 2016–2017 academic year.

In addition to developing such plans, school deans addressed a number of other issues, including:

  1. Reviewing the tenure and promotion processes, and reporting on outcomes and proposed new practices;
  2. Finding a rational means to measure and balance institutional workload, including mentoring, across the faculty;
  3. Developing co-curricular offerings for students on cross-cultural communication, and supporting faculty governance processes working to establish an undergraduate requirement on human difference; 
  4. Posting diversity and inclusion plans on the websites of departments/programs, administrative offices, divisions, and schools;
  5. Asking faculty and senior staff to describe their efforts to enhance diversity and inclusion on campus as a part of their annual performance reviews.