Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We’re Better Together
The School of Music, Theatre & Dance fully embraces the notion that academic and artistic excellence is inseparable from an abiding and pervasive institutional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The School is committed to furthering the University’s goal of ensuring that each member of our community has an equal opportunity to thrive and to take full advantage of the resources afforded by the University of Michigan.
Strategic Plan
The School of Music, Theatre & Dance Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Plan – Year 5 pertains to faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate students, and post-doctoral fellows. Our strategic plan for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion includes objectives with associated recommended actions for achieving them. All strategic objectives are accompanied by measures of success that will be tracked over time, as well as descriptions of single- and multiple-year actions that will be taken to accomplish those objectives. Your voice helps ensure that this plan continues to reflect our community. We urge all students, faculty, and staff to read the plan, respond to it and determine what you can do to improve DEI at SMTD. Each of us has a role to play in making our community better. Ultimately, we will be judged not by what we say, but what we do. View the DEI 1.0 Summary.
Climate Survey
As part of the Strategic Plan, SMTD participated in a DEI Climate Survey. The purpose of this voluntary effort was to provide individual units with a way to measure their respective workplace climates in terms of DEI. Data for this effort were collected in partnership with the ADVANCE Program. The results were compiled by an independent research contractor, SoundRocket, to generate reports that are now being made available by the Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. This report represents the first of several efforts to better understand our climate and how it may be experienced by various groups. In addition to the full reports for Faculty, Staff, and Students, executive summaries provide an overview of key findings.
- Faculty: Executive Summary | Full Report
- Special Faculty: Executive Summary | Full Report
- Staff: Executive Summary | Full Report
- Student: Executive Summary | Full Report
We welcome your comments and invite you to share them by contacting the Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at smtd-dei-office@umich.edu.
CRLT
The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching is part of the Provost’s Office and works with faculty, graduate student instructors (GSIs) and academic administrators in all nineteen schools and colleges to support and enhance learning and teaching at U-M. CRLT provide consultations, grants for faculty to improve teaching, printed resources, and workshop topics such as Inclusive Teaching and Hot Moments in the Classroom.
Identity-based Resources and Services
The Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs (MESA) ,using the lens of race and ethnicity, engages the campus community and transforms the student experience to build inclusive spaces. The Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) is a social justice education program.
The Office of Services for Students with Disabilities supports the University’s commitment to equity and diversity by providing support services and academic accommodations to students with disabilities.
ADVANCE STRIDE Committee Faculty Recruitment Workshops – The committee leads workshops for faculty and administrators involved in hiring. It also works with departments by meeting with chairs, faculty search committees, and other department members involved with recruitment and retention.
Awards
North Campus MLK Spirit Awards
The Martin Luther King Spirit Awards are given to students, student organizations, staff, and faculty members at the University of Michigan North Campus colleges who exemplify the leadership and vision of Dr. King through their commitment to social justice, diversity, and inclusion.
SMTD DEI Awards
These awards recognize and uplift the contributions of students, faculty and staff in the advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion in service, scholarship, musicianship, artistry, or advocacy.
DEI Involvement Opportunities
DEI SMTD Student Ambassadors
The DEI Ambassadors Program empowers a diverse group of current SMTD students who serve to strengthen our community by engaging with and learning from leaders in society and each other. Our student ambassadors are not only diverse in their age, gender, race, and sexual orientation; but also in religious affiliation, political views, and experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion work. Ambassadors receive information about events within SMTD and across campus that focus on leadership, social change and inclusion, as well as gather together a few times throughout the year for trainings, dialogue, and solidarity. More importantly, they are tasked with taking their newly found knowledge back into their respective communities to serve as an example and support to their peers. Are you interested in becoming a DEI Ambassador? Please contact the Office for DEI for more information.
Diversity and Inclusion Grants (DIGS)
SMTD grant funding is for current SMTD students, faculty, and staff to use in support of student organizations, professional development, conference attendance, or DEI-related projects. Please contact the Office for DEI for more information.
DEI & Anti Racism Related Resources
- Anti-Racism Primer: What Can I Do? (UM Human Resources)
- Young, Gifted, @ Risk and Resilient: A Video Toolkit to Support the Well-Being of Students of Color
- U-M Campus DEI Resources
- U-M Micro Consulting
- BIPOC-focused Mental Health Resources
- U-M Messages of Outrage & Hope
- Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources
- Understanding Implicit Bias
- 20+ Allyship Actions for Asians to Show Up for the Black Community Right Now
- Showing Up for Racial Justice’s Educational Toolkits
- Ta-Nehisi Coates on Police Brutality
- Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List
- Washtenaw County United Way 21 Day Equity Challenge
- More Anti-Racism Resources
Teaching and Learning
Books and Articles
- U-M Library Anti-Racist Reading List
- An Antiracist Reading List by Ibram X. Kendi (New York Times)
- Understanding and Dismantling Racism: A Booklist for White Readers
- How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
- Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
- Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper
- Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
- Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold
- Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
- Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander - The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
by Grace Lee Boggs - This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa
- When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD
- Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience by Sheila Wise Rowe
Apps and More
- Liberate is the number one meditation app for the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community. Listen to dozens of guided meditations to ease anxiety, find gratitude, heal internalized racism and microaggressions, and celebrate Blackness.
- The Safe Place: a Minority Mental Health App geared towards the Black Community to bring awareness, education, and hope.
- Black Lives Matters Meditation for Healing Racial Trauma by Dr. Candice Nicole
- Soulfulness 4 Life
Music
- Seven Last Words of the Unarmed by U-M Men’s Glee Club
- Songs Giving Us (Much Needed) Life by Code Switch (NPR)
Organizations
Videos and Podcasts
- “George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper,” Daily Show with Trevor Noah
- The Racial Wealth Gap, produced by Netflix
- American Segregation, Mapped at Day and Night, produced by Vox
- The Problem with America’s College Entrance Exam, produced by Vox
- Code Switch (NPR)
- About Race
- 1619 (New York Times)
- Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
- Pod For The Cause (from the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)
- White Lies (NPR)
- Seeing White
- The Breakdown with Dr. Earl: A Mental Health Podcast
- The Homecoming Podcast with Dr. Thema
Apps and More
- Liberate is the number one meditation app for the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community. Listen to dozens of guided meditations to ease anxiety, find gratitude, heal internalized racism and microaggressions, and celebrate Blackness.
- The Safe Place: a Minority Mental Health App geared towards the Black Community to bring awareness, education, and hope.
- Black Lives Matters Meditation for Healing Racial Trauma by Dr. Candice Nicole
- Soulfulness 4 Life
Music
- Seven Last Words of the Unarmed by U-M Men’s Glee Club
- Songs Giving Us (Much Needed) Life by Code Switch (NPR)
Connect with us!
The SMTD Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has an open door policy: anytime someone is in the office and a private meeting is not in session, we encourage students, faculty and staff to come by and express concerns they may have about the school climate, share project ideas, ask questions about DEI initiatives, or just say hello!
Dr. Amber Benton (she/her)
Chief Officer for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
amberben@umich.edu
(734) 764-3757
Caitlin Taylor (she/her)
DEI Program Manager
Mattie Levy (she/her)
DEI Coordinator
Sean Grier (he/him)
DEI Coordinator
Annabella Vidrio (she/her)
DEI Coordinator