News
![Erika Alexander (left) speaks with Daphne C. Watkins, the Letha A. Chadiha Collegiate Professor of Social Work, during her keynote conversation for the 2025 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/250120_MLKSymposium25_conversation-864x448.jpg)
January 21, 2025
![students walking across campus near Burton Tower](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Burton-Tower-Diag-2013-128x128.png)
January 16, 2025
Six teams funded for disability-related research projects![A maize Block M waves at the top of Michigan Union.](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/MPHOTO_UMCampusMiscStock22112-scaled-e1688053537358-128x128.jpg)
January 14, 2025
University announces initiative to ensure digital accessibility![Evening view of a building on the University of Michigan campus featuring a large illuminated display reading 'I am Michigan.' The display glows against the twilight sky, framed by trees and surrounded by softly lit pathways and greenery, creating a welcoming and vibrant campus atmosphere.](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MPHOTO_UMCampusStock1-20164-web-128x128.jpg)
January 13, 2025
Wallenberg Institute’s inaugural public event set for Jan. 21![photo of the Cube on central campus.](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/MPHOTO_CampusAerials20327-128x128.jpg)
January 9, 2025
Task force to consider process for new honorific namingsEvents
PALentines Card Making
Dr. Derek Griffith – Black Men’s Health 2/18
Change it Up!
![DEI banners](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/DEI-CmmntyCnvrstn19062-for-web-e1692507842220-351x309.jpg)
DEI Strategic Plan
![people sitting in a circle talking](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/AMAStdntEdConf17005-web-e1696268648796-351x309.png)
Defining DEI
![sketch of the early days of the University of Michigan.](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1866-Best-Education-BHL-e1680184659445-736x491.png)
History
The challenges and opportunities of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are interwoven into the fabric of the University of Michigan (U-M) over its over 200-year history, one that has shown an uncommon leadership in its commitment to higher education access, equity, and positive cultural change.
![A painting of a landscape depicting the University of Michigan from 1855.](https://diversity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/JasperCropseyUniversityOfMichigan.jpg)
Land Acknowledgement
The University of Michigan is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe people. In 1817, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadami Nations made the largest single land transfer to the University of Michigan. This was ceded ceremonially through the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids so that their children could be educated. Through these words of acknowledgment, the nations’ contemporary and ancestral ties to the land and their contributions to the University are renewed and reaffirmed.