Guest Column | A common goal: Increased diversity and inclusion

Increasing diversity and inclusion at every level — student, faculty and staff — is one of Penn’s highest institutional priorities. Make no mistake: By working together effectively to achieve diversity and inclusion, our great University will become ever more innovative and eminent.

Earlier this semester, Penn’s president and the chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees wrote letters affirming their ongoing commitments to diversity and inclusion. We write today both to reaffirm that commitment and to express our solidarity with all faculty, students and staff who share our goal of greater diversity and inclusion at Penn.

We are now moving full steam ahead towards implementing the strategies of Penn’s Action Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence, which was launched in the summer of 2011 with substantial University funding. Each of our deans is fully committed to this effort, and all 12 schools have adopted and begun implementing their own diversity action plans which detail many excellent new programs.

We are encouraged that progress in diversity has been significant in many areas at Penn. In areas where there has been less progress, we are absolutely determined to do more. We are thus deeply appreciative of the pledge in the recent faculty statement to “…work in our departments, centers and schools to develop substantive plans, procedures and practices that will enable Penn to fulfill the goals articulated in the Penn Action Plan for Diversity.” Next year we will issue our first progress report on the Action Plan, as well as our Minority Equity Report. We are also redoubling our efforts by improving search processes and in myriad other ways, to achieve greater diversity in our administrative and staff ranks as well.

As Penn continues to focus its attention and resources on increasing our diversity and eminence, we are grateful for the commitment demonstrated in the recent faculty statement. Working together across all levels of the University is the best way to ensure that we achieve our shared goals.

Amy Gutmann
President

Lynn Hollen Lees
Vice Provost for Faculty

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