Diversity and Inclusion
Our commitment to creating an inclusive community
The University of Rochester envisions itself as a community that welcomes, encourages, and supports individuals who desire to contribute to and benefit from the institution’s missions of teaching, research, patient care, performance, and community service. In a pluralistic culture, that community includes faculty, students, and staff who represent important differences.
Read more:
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The University’s statement on diversity and inclusion
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The University’s statement of educational philosophy
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The University’s Vision and Values
Diversity and Inclusion: Schools and Centers
Each of the University’s schools and colleges have offices devoted to diversity initiatives at the school level.
- Arts, Sciences & Engineering
- Eastman School of Music
- School of Medicine and Dentistry
- School of Nursing
- Simon Business School
- Warner School of Education
- University of Rochester Medical Center
News and announcements
The University of Rochester's Tenth Annual Diversity Conference, "Finding the Courage to Lead” aims to highlight the fearlessness and resilience needed when creating and sustaining an inclusive and equitable environment. Participants will not only engage around various markers of social justice, but also explore the strategies needed to create systemic change. The overall objective of the diversity conference is for the University community and the Greater Rochester community to engage with social justice topics. Each year the conference highlights a theme to help guide the focus for the day. Social justice topics may involve, but are not limited to: race/ethnicity, class, gender, culture, sexuality or orientation, disabilities/abilities, religion, or age
This year's keynote speaker is award-winning author, activist and cultural commentator Samina Ali.
The ninth annual InspireDanceFestival begins Thursday, February 14, and features more than 30 master classes and styles of dance over eight days. The festival features more than 30 master classes and styles of dance, including flamenco, contemporary, ballroom, Pilates, capoeira, West African dance, ballet, peacebuilding, and injury prevention.
In 2018, Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD) was one of two women awarded the Nobel Prize. Strickland is the third woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize in physics, and the first in 55 years. With the numbers of women entering scientific fields growing each year, these numbers are expected to rise in the near future.
On January 23, 2019, the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address was delivered by Symone Sanders, a CNN political commentator and National Press Secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. Prior to the address, Sanders met with students at the Douglass Leadership House for a discussion on her career, activism, and politics.
Puerto Rican children were more likely to have poor or decreasing use of inhaled medication needed to control their asthma than Mexican American children, according to a new study by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers.
The study, published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, also found that girls of both ethnic groups were more likely than boys to have poor or decreasing use of the asthma control medications.
Programs and Initiatives
Racism and Hate Speech: ‘We’re better than THAT’
The “We’re better than THAT” campaign educates students, faculty and staff on ways to approach difficult conversations on divisive topics and to stop hate speech and racism in our community.
Safe Space Training
The Safe Space program addresses ways to reduce homophobia and heterosexism to make our institution a safer and freer environment for all members of our community regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.
BUILD Xavier
BUILD Xavier (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) is a part of a larger initiative by the National Institutes of Health: Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-funded workforce. Xavier University of Louisiana has developed a program called Project PATHWAYS, which includes several components targeting students, faculty, and several non-academic centers on Xavier’s campus. The University of Rochester is one of the partnering institutions with Xavier University. This program encourages diversity in the scientific research workforce.
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