The Art of Diversity

The Art of Diversity details the University of California’s systemwide efforts to increase the diversity of its faculty from 2010 to 2022. It tells the story of a remarkable alignment of California stakeholders-from the UC Regents and University leaders to the Academic Senate and the California legislature, from small faculty teams to multicampus coalitions-and how they worked to create a 21st century faculty that reflects the diversity of California. This chronicle’s central focus is on a community of practice dedicated to excellence and equity. Efforts began with a program focused on finding new ways to collect data on faculty recruitment and create multicampus discussions on key topics like mentoring, intersectional racial and gender identities, workplace climate, and statements on diversity, equity, and inclusion. These efforts continued with a novel interactive theatre program for department chairs and deans. The capstone effort, Advancing Faculty Diversity, provided opportunities to pilot new ways to recruit and sustain inclusive and equitable academic communities.In sum, the chronicle addresses this central academic issue: how to build a faculty that is different from the past not only in its gender and racial makeup, but also in its research methodologies, transdisciplinary partnerships, and multimodal pedagogies.