DEI History

To better support its diverse community of artists, designers, and scholars, SAIC has made diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives a significant element of its planning efforts for more than a decade.

Knowing that a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist campus is critical for SAIC to fulfill its mission and institutional aspirations, the Anti-Racism Committee (ARC) was formed in the summer of 2020 to support and extend the work of existing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and catalyze DEI and anti-racist work throughout all areas of SAIC. Through a steering committee and eight working groups, composed of staff, faculty, students and a member of the board of governors, ARC identified and, with then-President Elissa Tenny, ratified multiple action items designed to improve the lived experience of all members of the campus community members by setting goals for meaningful change throughout the School’s operations. Additionally, the institutionally minded goals of ARC inspired intradepartmental activity in both academic and administrative areas of the School. 

To be a part of global demand to actively seek an anti-racist society and in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, SAIC announced several new initiatives during the summer of 2020.

The Diversity Action Plan began to be implemented in the 2013–14 academic year, establishing a new committee and staffing structure to further diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Throughout this great expansion in DEI efforts at SAIC, initiatives were taken that continued to diversify the reach of student admissions and faculty recruitment, incentivized diverse content in the curriculum, introduced DEI training for new community members, encouraged increased membership and participation among student affinity groups, established new pathways to make an SAIC education accessible to the Chicago’s diverse population, renewed the School’s commitment to its hometown through partnerships throughout the city, and increased programming and support structures to better nurture and create an environment that respects, values, and includes the backgrounds and perspectives of all its community members. By 2017, as the initial goals were realized and exceeded, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, as well as the complementary belonging initiatives, became central elements in a new strategic planning effort. 

In the 2009–10 academic year, SAIC developed a seven-initiative strategic plan; one of those initiatives was devoted to building diversity. Over the next several years, groups of faculty, staff, and students worked towards fulfilling the plan’s aspirations. The diversity-focused action group fostered campus-wide discussion among faculty, staff, students, administration, and board leadership, culminating in a Diversity Action Plan, charting the course for future progress. Meanwhile, several other action groups pursued diversity-related measures in student and faculty recruitment.