UMD Diversity Template – last updated May 2016 The promotion of diversity is a top priority at the University of Maryland (UMD). A Strategic Plan for Diversity was approved in 2010, with a focus on diversity and inclusion in six core areas: Leadership, Recruitment and Retention, Climate, Education, Research and Scholarship, and Community Engagement. The Office of Diversity & Inclusion, led by a Chief Diversity Officer, provides campus-wide leadership in the realization of the plan. UMD’s undergraduate population is 13% African American or Black and 8% Hispanic/Latino American, and women represent 46% and 48% of the campus undergraduate and graduate student population, respectively. Graduate students, accounting for 28% of the total student population, are comprised of nearly 20% minority students—8% African American, 4% Hispanic/Latino-American, and 7% Asian American. UMD ranked first among the Association of American Universities in the number of doctoral degrees conferred to African-American students in 2013. The ADVANCE Program for Inclusion focuses on women’s representation, retention, satisfaction, professional growth, and positive work environment through strategic networking across disciplines and initiatives that transform the culture and policies of the institution. The program, which also includes an emphasis on faculty of color, facilitates opportunities for learning and leadership, enhances agency through knowledge and planning for career advancement, and recognizes faculty contributions and accomplishments. The Graduate School’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion works closely with graduate programs on campus to ensure recruitment of the best and brightest students, including students from historically underserved and underrepresented populations. This office also supports programs to support and retain these students while fostering a sense of community on campus. This is achieved through active programming, such as PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for the Graduate Education and the Professoriate. This university system-wide effort focuses not only on increasing the number of minority students receiving Ph.D. degrees, but also the number of those students entering the professoriate in STEM fields. The PROMISE Alliance (http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/) is a coordination between the founding partners of the College Park (UMD), Baltimore (UMB), and Baltimore County (UMBC) campuses. It provides infrastructure support to programs by providing support and professional development advice for graduate student recruitment, retention, community building, Ph.D. completion, and transition to career. These centralized programs connect URM graduate students across these campuses.

In addition, the University of Maryland runs several summer internship programs for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups. UMD also has a long history of involvement in national meetings for minority undergraduates interested in research careers: the national meetings of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), and Career Opportunities in Research Education and Training (COR). Each of these meetings attracts well over 1,000 minority undergraduates to present papers and to meet with representatives of graduate programs. The Ronald McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program’s goal is to increase the number of low-income, first generation, and underrepresented group students choosing graduate study in research. The McNair Program emphasizes undergraduate research experience for all its scholars, and students attend McNair Research Conferences nationally, including an annual conference at UMD, to present their research. In 2015 UMD was awarded Insight into Diversity Magazine’s Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award. UMD was recently named the 10th Best College for African Americans by Essence and Money Magazines. For four years in a row, UMD has been named a Top- LGBT-Friendly University by Campus Pride and the Huffington Post.