How institutions are undertaking award-winning initiatives that celebrate diversity and build equitable and inclusive communities

Colleges and universities have been working on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for decades, but higher education leaders say the last two years have sparked a shift. The 2020 racial reckoning and Black Lives Matter movement, campus protests, and pandemic pressures have changed the conversation, expectations for, and nature of diversity leaders’ work. Here’s what advancement professionals should know about diversity leaders’ roles in higher education today—and the future of DEIB work for development.

In too many organizations, advancement is lagging on diversity, equity, and inclusion when it should be leading—and leading proactively. To build inclusive cultures and achieve real success in DEI objectives, advancement teams have to move from awareness to assessment to understanding. It's action with accountability. In this book excerpt, Angelique Grant and Ronald J. Schiller share key steps for leaders to do that.

The CASE Advancement Inclusion Index survey is a new tool to measure institutional DEIB efforts. Recently, the survey was piloted to the CASE 50, with 15 institutions participating. Read on to learn what leaders at four of these institutions had to say about their experiences, how they plan to share the results and implement them into their overall goals, and their hopes to see the survey become an industry standard.

Discover the Next highlights the value of higher education in an effort to dispel negative public perceptions and misconceptions. Through DTN, colleges and universities come together to share impact stories of how higher education transforms individuals and society. This feature hones in on compelling stories from several DTN participating institutions around the themes of access and affordability.

Earlier this year, CASE had an open call for Co-Chair nominations for the CASE Multi-Cultural Network (MCN). We are grateful to announce the appointment of Magda Joshi (she/her), Engagement Manager at Birkbeck, University of London, as Network Co-Chair and Laney Wang (she/her), International Alumni Officer at Newcastle University, as Vice-Chair.

Here, Magda and Laney share what Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity and Belonging means to them and provide an update on what to expect from the newly launched CASE Multi-Cultural Network.

Black women and women of color are underrepresented as faculty and administrators in higher education—and in advancement specifically, they face a specific set of career challenges. Here, author Karen Chance Mercurius shares her research on how Black women navigate career challenges (like pay inequities, difficulties getting promoted, and challenging interactions with donors and colleagues) and the supports that can help them succeed (mentoring and networking, for instance).