At Midwestern University, diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to our academic life, campus community, and clinical practice. We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we value and celebrate the diverse backgrounds of each of our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and patients.
All of our Colleges and Departments have actively embraced the charge to listen, discuss, and carefully examine our practices and policies to bring greater awareness and understanding. The University has created several working groups to review our policies, curriculum, community outreach, and recruitment, and to create strategies that promote an equitable and diverse learning environment for all. These efforts will be ongoing, and the University remains steadfast in its desire to enrich the culture of acceptance and respect of diversity in all its forms throughout our academic community.
Midwestern University Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI)
Our University's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) is dedicated to provide guidance, leadership, and resources in support of the Midwestern University’s commitment to building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive institution. ODEI’s goal is to become a hub for coordinating diversity and inclusion efforts across our institution and will be facilitating joint programming and contributing to best practices in graduate healthcare education. These activities will be implemented over time and in coordination with all Colleges, Programs, and Departments of the University.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives are a key part of Midwestern University’s core values. Fulfilling our mission depends on the University’s ability to attract and retain students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds that thrive in our community. A diverse and inclusive campus leads to innovation, broadened perspectives, and understanding – values that are foundational aspects of healthcare education.
Contact: ODEI@midwestern.edu
DEI at Midwestern University
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- Diversity refers to the variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews that arise from differences and intersections of culture and circumstance, and reflects a broad range of identities and perspectives, including race, ethnicity, age, religious beliefs, language, gender identity, and expression, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, nationality, disability status, disability status, veteran status, geographic region, and more. Greater diversity is conducive to more robust, creative, and relevant outcomes in scholarly and academic processes, academic and social programming, and community engagement. Diversity enriches the educational and employment experience for everyone, and we are unequivocal in our support of underrepresented and historically marginalized groups.
- Equity is creating opportunities for equal access and success for historically underrepresented populations. It requires proactive steps to identify, address, and eliminate systemic barriers in order to promote meaningful transformation and progress.
- Inclusion & Belonging is a commitment to creating environments in which all individuals and groups feel welcome, respected, heard, supported, and valued while recognizing that each individual is unique and acknowledging differences and intersections across social identities. Inclusion requires listening to other viewpoints and embracing and celebrating differences. Feeling included and connected elevates engagement and a sense of belonging for everyone on campus. Belonging is the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity.
- Cultural Awareness & Humility refers to the institutional and personal commitment to obtain and demonstrate knowledge and skills that allow us to learn, work, and engage effectively in a diverse environment. Cultural humility in healthcare involves understanding the complexity of identities, health-related beliefs, practices, and cultural values of diverse populations, as well as recognizing that a clinician may never be fully competent about the evolving and dynamic nature of a patient's experience.
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Land Acknowledgment
Midwestern University is a graduate healthcare institution that dedicates its resources to educational excellence and embraces diversity in our academic family and the community-at-large. It is within our University's responsibility as an academic institution to disseminate knowledge about Native peoples and the institution's history with them. Consistent with the University's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, Midwestern strives to build relationships with Native Nations and Indigenous communities through academic and research pursuits, partnerships, community service, employee recruitment, and enrollment efforts. By acknowledging the historical context of the land we use, we strive to foster dialogue and connection across cultures and to promote the recognition of the history of our Glendale, AZ and Downers Grove, IL communities. Acknowledging the history of the land on which our campuses are located presents an opportunity to support, raise awareness of, and collaborate with Indigenous communities today.
We respectfully acknowledge that the Midwestern University Downers Grove, IL Campus is on the traditional and ancestral homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires - the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa -, and many other tribes that resided on or migrated through the area for generations, including the Illinois, Menominee, Miami, Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, Dakota, and Ho-Chunk nations. Our campus is also near an urban Native American community in Chicago and several tribes in the Midwest. The area was a site of trade, travel, gathering, and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes and is still home to over 100,000 tribal members in the state of Illinois. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Indigenous peoples who have been caretakers of the land throughout generations, past and present.
We respectfully acknowledge that the Midwestern University Glendale, AZ Campus is on the traditional and ancestral homelands of the people of twenty-two Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries, sharing their unique spiritual, cultural, and economic richness. Our Arizona campus is located in the Salt River Valley, the ancestral territory of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima), the Piipaash (Maricopa), and many other tribes that resided on or migrated through the area for generations, including the Ak-Chin, Apache, Aztec, Cocopah, Hopi, and Yavapai nations. As far back as 12,000 years ago, indigenous cultures made their home in present-day Arizona. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Indigenous peoples who have been caretakers of the land throughout generations, past and present.
A Land Acknowledgment is a formal statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of the land we use, and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.Sources:
- The Morton Arboretum, Land Acknowledgement, https://mortonarb.org/about-arboretum/inclusion/land-acknowledgment/ (accessed 10/26/2021)
- Downers Grove Public Library, Land Acknowledgement, https://dglibrary.org/land/ (accessed 10/26/2021)
- Heard Museum – Education, Arizona Indian Communities, https://heard.org/education/arizona-indian-communities/ (accessed 10/27/21)
- Arizona Commission on the Arts, Where We are, https://azarts.gov/about-us/land-acknowledgement/ (accessed 10/27/2021)
This Campus Voices page highlights, honors and celebrates the individual stories and variety of lived experiences, backgrounds, values, and worldviews of our Midwestern University students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The diversity of our academic family leads to broadened perspectives, innovation, and understanding - values that are foundational aspects of healthcare education.