Dear AU Community:

Inclusive excellence is a core value for American University and our community. We continue to advance our inclusive excellence work and programs as we address recent federal policies and executive orders. Today I want to share a series of steps in support of these commitments and our plan moving forward. 

The Office of Inclusive Excellence has initiated a strategy to support campus-wide efforts, strengthen understanding of our IE work and how we engage, align practices across our community, and provide the necessary support to campus members as the work and federal policy landscape evolves. To that end, we want to ensure that our community has information and understanding of our path ahead. 

Inclusive Excellence

As a starting point, what do we mean by inclusive excellence? Inclusive excellence helps colleges and universities build inclusion and access into their missions, educational pursuits, and institutional operations. It calls for higher education to address inclusion and access as critical to the well-being of democratic culture. It is an active process through which colleges and universities achieve excellence in learning, teaching, student development, institutional functioning, and engagement in local and global communities. 

Inclusive excellence is the recognition that the foundation of an organization’s success is how well it engages, includes, and honors the rich cultures, identities, and perspectives of all community members, including its students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends and affiliates.  Inclusive excellence affirms that both the similarities and the differences that comprise our communities are strengths that create enduring educational and social benefits for all. 

More information can be found by visiting our website. 

Through this AU inspired framing, our next steps as an institution are to align this across the community with these critical steps:

Communications: Our websites, social media, correspondence, and all modes of external engagement mechanisms should follow the framing provided by the Office of Inclusive Excellence. This alignment embodies our framework of inclusive excellence and creates cohesion around understanding, purpose, and mission. In addition, this alignment ensures consistency in our utilization of the principles developed specifically for our work at American University. 

Framework: As a standard, inclusive excellence embodies the need to build inclusion and access into all elements of higher education. To embody this standard, we will also ensure that all members of our campus community are welcome to fully participate, engage, and explore all aspects of educational (including co-curricular) opportunities we offer, including in our language which emphasizes openness to all for participation and engagement, ensuring alignment with our AU principles. We understand and continue to support specific programming and initiatives based on advocacy, development, community building, and more, aligning these objectives with the principles of inclusive excellence and the inclusive excellence mindset.

As we continue to work directly with the community in our forward plans, our next steps include campus leaders and units working directly through identified subgroups, to implement our path forward while also assessing potentially impacted programs and initiatives. This phase is underway and is scheduled for full implementation in early fall. 

I would also welcome opportunities to hear directly from the community on ways you would like to contribute to our work, offer feedback, or just engage directly. Please join me during my monthly virtual Community Hours or join me at the Bridge Cafe for Coffee (on me!) this month. 

Please contact us at ie@american.edu with questions, comments, and to learn more about our forward plan. 

Sincerely, 

Nkenge Friday Vice President, Inclusive Excellence