Some departments offer programs and speakers related to identity and opportunity. Specifically, American Culture and DAAS serve as homes to various ethnic studies programs while various area studies centers in the International Institute also engage with diverse identities.
Many academic departments have their own DEI websites. We encourage you to contact your department to learn about their DEI initiatives.
The Comprehensive Studies Program, established in 1983, is a comprehensive program of academic, social and personal support for students with outstanding potential for success at the University of Michigan. CSP is a Michigan Learning Community that is an academic unit within the College of Literature, Science and the Arts and which offers a variety of academic support services, including the Summer Bridge Program, academic year course instruction, advising, tutoring, and freshmen interest groups. CSP works closely with a wide variety of academic departments, offices and programs throughout the university, including offices in the various schools and colleges, the Undergraduate Admissions Office and the Office of Financial Aid.
The Comprehensive Studies Program is a community of scholars--students, faculty, advisors and staff--organized around the principles of diversity, access, equity and inclusion. Together they promote academic excellence and champion personal growth and wellness for all students within the community and the University of Michigan at large.
The English Language Institute (ELI) was established in 1941 as the first university-based Intensive English Program in the United States and the first language research and teaching program of its kind. Today, the ELI provides language, academic, and intercultural instruction for international graduate students and scholars; language and pedagogy courses for international Graduate Student Instructors; and ESL/EFL teacher preparation courses for undergraduates.
ELI's volunteer Conversation Circles program was started more than thirty years ago to promote intercultural exchange and to provide international students and scholars at U-M with opportunities to practice English in an informal, casual setting.
What’s a Michigan Learning Community?
MLCs are self-selected groups of students and faculty, often from diverse backgrounds, drawn together by shared goals and common intellectual interests. Those interests can range from community service to cutting-edge research and from mathematics to communication arts.
The Best of Both Worlds
Michigan Learning Communities (MLC) combine the personal attention of a small college environment with the unparalleled resources of a large research university. Be a part of a friendly, supportive, and intellectually stimulating community while you take advantage of everything the larger Michigan campus has to offer. Most MLCs are primarily for first year students, though the Global Scholars Program is especially for sophomores and above while the others welcome transfers or upper division students as peer leaders.
At the LSA Opportunity Hub, they don’t believe it’s as simple as “finding your passion.”You develop your interests. You uncover your values. You try on different experiences and see how they fit with who you are and what you want from life.T
he Hub team works as partners with students on one of the most important projects of their lives: forming a professional identity.
They do this through coaching, interactive classes, alumni-hosted internships, internship scholarships, and opportunities to build important relationships with alumni and employers. Through all of these they foster reflection and meaning making, so that students are empowered with the self-knowledge to take their next step forward.
LSA alumni are our colleagues in this effort. As former students, they have deep enthusiasm and understanding for working with undergrads, providing vital wisdom, time, and funding support.
Here are some of the ways they fulfill our mission to work with students to connect their liberal arts education to their goals and aspirations.
The Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) is a social justice education program. IGR blends theory and experiential learning to facilitate students' learning about social group identity, social inequality, and intergroup relations. The program prepares students to live and work in a diverse world and educates them in making choices that advance equity, justice, and peace. IGR was founded in 1988 and was the first program of its kind. IGR is a partnership between Student Life and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
Established in 1988-1989, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) creates research partnerships between undergraduate students and University of Michigan (U-M) researchers and local community partners and organizations. Our students engage in research and creative projects with research mentors representing all 19 colleges/schools/units at U-M. UROP focuses on the skills, perspectives, and resources that diverse students bring to higher education by encouraging them toward a life-long appreciation for discovery, building understanding across differences, and critically examining information in the world around them.