DEI Initiatives in Ross
An interview with the Director of Academic Success at Ross
—By Katherina Andrade Ozaetta
Ameera’s Story
As a Morroccan teen coming from a small, predominantly white town in Michigan, Ameera Seemia did not know what to expect coming into college. In general, people speak of college as being a transformative period in their lives, where they are exposed to different perspectives and diverse individuals. Ameera did not believe she would get to experience this, as she was entering the Ross School of Business, a school within the University of Michigan where the majority of the undergraduate student population is white. “I just thought it would be more of the same: feeling alone as the only non-white person in the space.”
In the spring of her senior year of high school, Ameera received an invitation to join, Ross Summer Connection (RSC) program. The three-week summer bridge program fascinated her because it would allow her to take classes at Ross, while also receiving a stipend. This meant she did not have to take on a summer job and a leg up on her college career. However, what fascinated her the most was the opportunity to meet students of various underrepresented backgrounds. She was excited at the prospect of making new connections but was ultimately uncertain of the friends she would make.
In the fall of her first year of college, Ameera found herself immersed with the friends she had made at RSC. Daunting experiences like the first day of class or first time eating in the dining hall were made infinitely easier with the companions she had made during the summer program. Likewise, other members of her cohort found themselves closer than ever, where they had found a group of similar individuals that could understand what it meant to be a diverse student in a homogenous environment.
Diverse students like Ameera are often left feeling out of place in predominantly white institutions like the University of Michigan. This can cause a multitude of issues for the student, from poor mental health to failing grades to dropping out. It’s a glaring reason why DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs are essential to our education systems. Programs like RSC enable a cohort of diverse students to feel at ease and connected on campus. They are central to the progression of a college.
Ross Summer Connection
Ross Summer Connection is one of many “fammunities” that Rhonda Todd, the Director of Academic Success at the Ross School of Business, has brought and/or cultivated into the world. Academic Success is the Ross department responsible for many supportive and inclusive programs aimed at students who are coming from underrepresented backgrounds. Conceived by the former associate dean, Lynn Wooten, as a way to bridge potential educational gaps between high school and college, Todd and her team has honed it in to become a “learning community” that can work to support students at such a critical point in their college education. Each aspect of the program was carefully thought out to facilitate the development of these students. One crucial way was the inclusion of a stipend, which was implemented with the goal of helping students who would be forgoing a paycheck from a summer job to attend. Although a small facet of RSC, it is a factor for attracting students and growing the community.
The RSC community serves to support participants as they navigate the business school. It creates crucial bonds between students and imbues them with tangible skills. Although it is the only Ross program centered on incoming first year business students, Todd has several other programs geared towards engaging those students interested in business such as Preparation Initiative, MREACH and Michigan Ross Summer Business Academy.
Preparation Initiative
Preparation Initiative (PI), or formerly known as the Mastery Project, was created by the late Professor J. Frank Yates in 2005 as a way to support cross-campus transfers of diverse students from LSA to Ross. This pipeline program was one of the first in Ross to be specifically geared toward, but not limited to, underrepresented students, and its results are astounding: seventy-one percent of URM (underrepresented minority) students in Ross come from PI. “The pipeline works,” Todd stresses often. And it does when it has adequate resources attached.
Students in PI have access to coaching, advising, and more programs geared towards aiding them to successfully transfer into the college. By providing these resources, it empowers students to be more competitive and utilize their full potential without being hindered by costs or other barriers.
PI has also been a group that has fostered a cultural change in Ross. In 2017, after experiencing an aggregate of racial aggression and microaggressions, PI invited administrators to discuss these experiences. PI students were able to have a frank conversation with the associate dean and other administrators on what they had experienced on campus and in Ross. This led to the creation of the DEI Taskforce (now newly named DEI Council with a VP of DEI addition), a part of the BBA Council within Ross that has led initiatives like adding name pronunciations on name tents in the school to recognizing pronouns in class. Without PI, this group may not have been formed.
Future of DEI in Ross
Although Ross has invested heavily financially when it comes to DEI programs, there is still a significant amount of work that needs to be done. Todd isn’t afraid to admit this herself, “Do we have a way to go? Absolutely.” There are still a multitude of issues that Ross needs to address before it can be comfortable in its relationship with diversity, equity, and inclusion.
One of these issues, as Todd pointed out to me, is the need for scholarships targeting underrepresented students, “Prop 2 does not permit public universities to have scholarships dedicated to solely underrepresented students. However, I fundamentally believe that if we are going to move equity forward in public institutions like UM, this needs to be on the table.”
However, while the likelihood of Prop 2 being eliminated is low, there is still work that can be done to help underrepresented students attend the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business. Alumni can be an important part of this process, as they can provide donations to increase the amount of scholarship money available to students. Moving forward, the hope is that more donations are funelled into scholarships.
Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are a difficult undertaking. In the past, there has never been such a hyper focused lens on these milestones. Now, it’s in the forefront and it is imperative that educational institutions act as a result. There is no one solution that allows an institution to solve decades long issues over diversity, but the implementation of programs like Ross Summer Connection, Preparation Initiative and Ross Admissions’ events like All Access and Ross Preview Weekend are critical starting points for the future.
Feature Photo by Rhonda Todd