Defining Inclusive Excellence

This plan is guided by a widely-used model known as Inclusive Excellence, an organizational culture-change framework designed by higher education scholar-practitioners at the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2005. It provides a cohesive, coherent, and collaborative approach to infusing diversity into every aspect of organizational structures, systems, and practices. 

Inclusive Excellence advances the idea that diversity, equity, and inclusion are catalysts for achieving institutional and educational excellence, and are to be integrated into the core of the institution, not viewed as discrete initiatives or isolated problems to be solved. Through the Inclusive Excellence lens, diversity, equity, and inclusion are embraced as vital elements that are necessary in the pursuit of educational excellence.