Diversity philosophy

Arizona State University is deeply committed to positioning itself as one of the great new universities by seeking to build excellence, enhance access and have an impact on our community, state, nation and the world.

To do that requires our faculty and staff to reflect the intellectual, ethnic and cultural diversity of our nation and world so that our students learn from the broadest perspectives, and we engage in the advancement of knowledge with the most inclusive understanding possible of the issues we are addressing through our scholarly activities.

As one part of this commitment, we have developed a strategic plan for diversity at ASU. Developed in consultation with a wide variety of constituencies within the university and the deans, this plan, called “Building blocks for success through people, programming and policies,” contains a statement that serves as an ongoing touchstone of our commitment, and several specific initiatives that will change and evolve over time, depending on the challenges and opportunities we have before us.

Diversity is defined in terms of representation and inclusion. Representation reflects the extent to which our students, staff, faculty and administrators proportionately reflect the regional and national populations served by our public institution. Inclusion encompasses empowerment and voice among all members of the university community in the areas of scholarship, teaching, learning and governance.

We recognize that race and gender historically have been markers of diversity in institutions of higher education; we further believe that diversity includes additional categories such as socioeconomic background, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, nationality and intellectual perspective.