About Inclusive Excellence

Inclusive Excellence (IE) is a strategic framework that initially was developed by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in 2005. IE recognizes that institutional excellence is advanced when an institution centers, values, and engages the vibrant diversity of all its community members, including students, staff, faculty, and alumni.  At its core, Inclusive Excellence offers a guiding framework for institutions to design, embed, and evaluate inclusive best practices across key institutional dimensions. In CFANS, Inclusive Excellence is closely connected to our land-grant mission: to ensure that the knowledge, education, innovation, and opportunities generated through our college are accessible, relevant, and responsive to the diverse communities we serve in the State and beyond. 

In CFANS, the key dimensions, or areas of focus, for advancing Inclusive Excellence are:

Inclusive Excellence (by design) include five key dimensions.

Dimensions of Inclusive Excellence

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Dimensions of Inclusive Excellence

Dimension 1: Student Access & Success (SAS)

  • Description: Identify and implement strategies to enhance access, minimize barriers, and promote full engagement and success for all CFANS students. Additionally, prioritize developing and strengthening pathways into CFANS that expand access and opportunities for individuals from the full range of diverse communities that we serve across Minnesota.

Dimension 2: Teaching & Learning (T&L)

  • Description: Support efforts to ensure that our teaching prioritizes inclusive pedagogy and creates accessible, inclusive, and equitable learning environments for all CFANS students. 

Dimension 3: Workplace Climate & Connection (WCC)

  • Description: Foster, maintain, and promote an environment in which all CFANS staff and faculty can feel connected, supported, valued, and have the opportunity to experience a sense of belonging.

Dimension 4: Community Engagement (CE)

Description: Prioritize developing authentic, mutually beneficial relationships with a diverse range of partners across Minnesota, including community-based organizations, industry, K–12 schools, alumni, and others, that reflect the diversity of the communities across the State.

Dimension 5: Systems & Investment (S&I)

Description: Allocate resources to build the internal systems (e.g., fair policies, practices, performance measures, etc.) needed to foster fair, equitable, and inclusive learning and working environments within CFANS.

Adapted from Williams, et al. (2005) and University of Virginia, Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Inclusive Excellence (2022).