A new University of Michigan report recommends ways higher education employers can “decenter whiteness” in their workplaces, including by counting staff by their race at meetings.
The report comes from the public university’s National Center for Institutional Diversity and its Change Agents Shaping Campus Diversity and Equity program. Its recommendations are based, in part, on interviews the authors conducted with 50 full-time “staff of color” at the university.
According to the report, universities need to do more to end the “structural racism” that is “embedded in the[ir] fabric,” and transform their institutions into “thriving” environments for staff of color.
The report begins with a quote from one of the interviewees: “‘I just have to sit there and be a rock in a river and let the water flow over me.’ This is how a participant in this study characterized their experience working at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI).”