Fielding Graduate University has a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from our earliest beginnings in the early 1970s. With the founding focus of providing doctoral education to mid-career adults, we offered graduate experiences specifically designed for people who had been left out of traditional education.  At that time, graduate education was primarily for the younger, relatively inexperienced male adult, usually white, who was able to forego full-time employment and to relocate his family, if he had one, for several years to pursue a PhD. In contrast, Fielding’s distributed model built on students’ professional expertise, allowing them to remain in their communities and work settings. We hired scholar-practitioner faculty who lived and worked in the communities where our students were located.

Since that time, diversity, equity and inclusion remain an active process that requires continuous commitment to promote collaborative learning and change through attracting, retaining, graduating and honoring a more diverse population of students, faculty, staff, alumni and community friends. Social and ecological justice is part of our explicit commitment to understanding, analyzing and acting to reduce inequality, oppression and social stratification, recognizing the linkages between economic, social and ecological justice. The university strives to ensure that DEI are embodied in all academic programs including course content, faculty, staff and student performance, assessment and accountability. We challenge our community to think boldly and take specific actions that are realistic and measurable.

Fielding’s DEI goals are to:

1. Build an inclusive culture, by intentionally creating a climate of inclusion and equity for all to feel welcomed.
2. Assure the intercultural and global competence of all faculty, administration and staff.
3. Increase the diversity of faculty with targeted recruitment, hiring and retention efforts.
4. Assure the presence of curricula for social/ecological justice and diversity in all programs.
5. Increase diversity of our student body, taking into account the diversity not only in the U.S. but globally as well.