Diversity and Community Engagement
The University of Mississippi

School of Business Administration

School of Business Administration
Five-Year Equity-in-Action Plan
INTRODUCTION

MESSAGE FROM DEAN CYREE

Our mission is to create an excellent educational environment that welcomes all students from every background. We strive to enhance student outcomes for underrepresented and minority students and help to create outstanding career opportunities for these students and for all of our graduates.   

MESSAGE FROM DIVERSITY LIAISONS

The School of Business Administration is committed to its core values, respecting all members, providing extraordinary service and dedicating itself to excellence. These values drive our vision for equity in action to create safe, inclusive spaces for all students to grow and learn. This plan focuses on benchmarking the school’s current climate, prioritizing areas of improvement and engaging stakeholders (alumni, employers, faculty, staff and students) to drive these improvements to strengthen the learning environment.

GUIDING STATEMENTS

Mission

Our mission is to improve business and society by inspiring students, business and community leaders through advancing business knowledge and capabilities.

Vision

Our vision is to cultivate innovative and effective leaders through transformational educational opportunities that foster business knowledge acquisition, a strong work ethic, and collaboration skills to better Mississippi, the surrounding region and society as a whole.

Core Values

The School of Business Administration is a learning community that embraces its mission in a collegial environment characterized by:

  • Respect for all members of the School of Business Administration team
  • Work to provide extraordinary service to each other, to our students, to the research community and to society
  • Commitment to excellence in all endeavors that we undertake

Code of Ethics

The School of Business Administration at the University of Mississippi seeks to promote the highest level of ethical standards among its graduates. Pursuant to that end, graduates are expected to follow the norms and standards established by their individual professional organizations in terms of their responsibility toward all stakeholders such as customers, employees, investors, suppliers, channel members, regulators and society as a whole. Accordingly, they are obligated to familiarize themselves with the professional standards of their particular discipline. The following code of ethics is, therefore, established as an addition to the standards of individuals’ professional organizations.

Graduates of the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration should:

  • Be forthright and truthful in dealings with stakeholders by serving the best interests of all of the organization’s stakeholders including society as a whole.
  • Serve as a model of ethical decision making to others, and always set and exemplify the highest standards of ethical behavior.
  • Seek to do no harm, but when they make a mistake, admit it quickly and not try to conceal it.
  • Conduct all business in good faith.
  • Accept the consequences of their decisions, and take professional responsibility for individual decisions and actions.
  • Recognize the basic dignity of all stakeholders by treating others as they would wish to be treated.
  • Comply with all the applicable laws and regulations of society and of their profession.
  • Act as society’s stewards in facilitating and executing efficient and effective commercial transactions.
  • Always execute their professional duties to the best of their capabilities.
  • Fulfill their philanthropic and societal responsibilities to stakeholders.

It is important for graduates of the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration to adhere to the principles of this code and encourage adherence by others as well.

Statement of Academic Integrity

The School of Business Administration upholds honor and academic integrity in all of its teaching, research and service activities. All business faculty, staff and students are charged with the responsibility to behave with personal integrity and to refrain from dishonorable conduct.

To uphold these values, the school is steadfastly devoted to:

  • Sustaining excellence in teaching, research and service, characterized by:
    • Our belief in broad-based business education
    • Our recognition and commitment to the importance of contemporary research that enhances the body of business knowledge
    • Our commitment to effectively serving the school, the university and the larger academic, state, regional and national communities
  • Fostering intellectual growth by:
    • Supporting a diverse community of faculty, students and staff dedicated to the development of a culture of learning that fosters high ethical standards and respect for one another
    • Providing an environment that is conducive to learning, scholarship and cooperative interaction to stimulate the enrichment of teaching, research and lifelong professional development
  • Responding to its constituents by:
    • Fulfilling the obligation to support continuous improvement in the quality of its students, faculty, learning environment and resources to meet the changing needs of students, faculty, staff, employers, parents, alumni, friends and others who care about the growth of the school, the local community and the state of Mississippi
    • Serving as a faithful and prudent steward of resources that have been entrusted to the school by the university, the state, alumni, friends, corporations and other stakeholders who have invested in supporting the mission of the school

PATHWAYS TO EQUITY: University of Mississippi Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan

The University of Mississippi continues its commitment to excellence and making a positive difference in society through higher education. Pathways to Equity stands as our institutional guidepost for addressing and advancing our institutional mission through centering on diversity, equity and inclusion. Our complex institutional history coupled with our rich culture of students, faculty and staff striving for inclusive change has led us to the solidification of this institutional plan. Pathways to Equity works in concert with the university’s strategic plan to leverage university-wide, college/school-level and departmental transformative initiatives that cultivate a more diverse, equitable and inclusive campus.

With Pathways to Equity, the University of Mississippi aspires to achieve the following statements by the conclusion of this plan.

  1. The University of Mississippi consistently and comprehensively articulates diversity, equity and inclusion as essential in fulfilling the mission, vision and values of the institution.
  2. The University of Mississippi is organizationally and culturally equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to continue advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.
  3. A campus climate is fostered that ensures all individuals are valued, supported and feel a sense of belonging at the University of Mississippi.
  4. The University of Mississippi has decreases in disparities across underrepresented groups in the enrollment, retention and graduation rate at undergraduate and graduate levels.
  5. The number of underrepresented groups employed at the University of Mississippi is increased to reflect a talented and diverse workforce at all organizational levels, especially tenure-track faculty, managerial positions and executive leadership positions.

Guiding Principles

The development of this plan requires us to address individual, social, organizational and systemic factors that create and sustain inequities that prevent all members of our community from fully participating and thriving. We view this as central to the mission of the University of Mississippi. As we embark on this journey together, we must commit to the following shared principles:

  1. Equity-mindedness[1] – We embrace the institutional responsibility and agency to actively address the challenges and disparate outcomes at all levels of our community. This requires us to be data informed and connect best and promising practices to generate high-impact change for underserved groups in our community.
  2. Institutional Accountability – We must ensure efforts outlined throughout Pathways to Equity are acknowledged in the established systems of recognition, performance and accountability. It is vital that we work to account for the advancement of these goals in our ideas of success, merit and reward. Further, we must account for, honor and recognize faculty, staff, administrators and students in their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
  3. Transparency – In our execution of Pathways to Equity, our success is predicated on a highly accessible and collaborative process that actively involves university stakeholders to work as virtuous partners. To that end, we will consistently, publicly and broadly share our intended actions, goals and measurable impacts of this plan.
  4. Innovation – Actualizing diversity, equity and inclusion will require us to deeply examine and rethink our policies, practices and procedures at the University of Mississippi. Each unit and individual across campus is invited to offer new thoughts, ideas and perspectives as we thoughtfully consider ways to make our institution more equitable and inclusive through an intersectional lens. This disposition will create a community of learning, growth and development as we collectively engage in this complex work.
  5. Alignment of Critical Resources – During this planning process, we have navigated a global health pandemic that has shown the vulnerabilities in our systems that disparately affect underserved and under-resourced communities. As we continue to navigate these unprecedented times, we must not falter in our commitment to creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community. Instead, we must recognize that our commitment to equity is even more important today than ever.

OVERARCHING GOALS

The following goals represent the University of Mississippi’s commitment to the advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). These overarching goals represent interconnected priorities that are applicable to UM broadly, from our comprehensive divisions, down to individual teams. We aim to have all units see meaningful alignment of these goals with their work. We will ensure UM embraces the transformative nature of diversity, equity and inclusion across all levels of the institution, addressing challenges to DEI at every corner of our institution by combining contextual understanding with internal and external expertise.

  1. Advance Institutional Capacity for Equity
    Infrastructure, Information, Systems, Education and Processes
  2. Cultivate a Diverse and Equitable Community
    Recruiting, Retaining, Advancing and Succeeding
  3. Foster an Inclusive Campus Climate
    Support, Value and Belonging

 

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION FIVE-YEAR EQUITY-IN-ACTION PLAN

OVERVIEW

The School of Business Administration is committed to investing in the advancement of knowledge and innovation. Although we continue to face budget reductions, The school is focused on creating an inclusive environment for students through recruitment, enrollment, retention and first destination. 

DIVERSITY PLANNING TASK FORCE

  • Danielle Ammeter, assistant dean for undergraduate programs
  • Sital Sigh, project manager
  • Walter Davis, faculty director of the MBA program
  • Ashley McGee, director of MBA administration
  • Maria Berns, associate professor of management, McNair Program liaison

STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES

A. Targeted Recruitment of Underrepresented Faculty, Staff and Doctoral Students:

The School of Business Administration will advance institutional capacity for equity by creating education and awareness opportunities for faculty and staff. Efforts will include best practice trainings, workshops and seminars.

The School of Business Administration will work to benchmark against Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business peer institutions and assemble a volunteer task force that will be open to staff, faculty and students. After this foundational work is implemented, the task force, in alignment with the strategic plan, will determine whether potential areas of improvement exist and launch specific action steps, such as review of systems in undergraduate student services, curriculum and pedagogy. We will create a School of Business DEI statement to include in the strategic plan. We will launch initiatives for improvement should any be needed in faculty teaching and training, student services such as career preparation and advising, and/or a speaker series.

School of Business Strategic Plan:

Committed to investing in the advancement of knowledge and innovation. Although we continue to face budget reductions, a primary function of the School of Business Administration is the generation of impactful and novel knowledge by diverse faculty and students.

University Objectives:

  • Articulation of diversity, equity and inclusion (1.1)
  • Workforce with knowledge, skills and awareness to support/lead diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to attract and retain productive and impactful scholars and increase faculty diversity (1.2)

Area(s) Responsible: diversity liaisons, Dean’s Office

Resources Statement: The school will rely on the university for funding for speaker series and on-campus training facilitators

Institutional Capacity

  • Recruitment of volunteer diversity, equity and inclusion task force from faculty, staff and students
  • Number of faculty and staff participating in trainings
  • School of Business DEI statement written and published on website

Diverse and Equitable Community

  • Faculty Demographics – gender and ethnicity (Baseline: 2019-20 faculty demographics; benchmark: universitywide faculty demographics and AACSB peer institutions)
  • Staff Demographics – gender and ethnicity (Baseline: 2019-20 staff demographics; benchmark: universitywide staff demographics and AACSB peer institutions)

B. Implement Targeted Retention/Graduation Strategies for Underrepresented Minority Students:

The School of Business Administration will implement targeted strategies to improve retention and graduation rates for existing students.

School of Business Strategic Plan: The School of Business Administration is committed to cultivating a diverse and equitable community and to develop our graduates to be valuable, constructive members of society through high-quality programs.

University Objectives:

  • Improve retention and graduation rates by (2.3):
    • Increasing student support services to at-risk students
    • Putting the general business program (beyond general education courses) fully online to serve the entire state

Area(s) Responsible: Undergraduate Student Services, success coach, DEI liaisons

Resources Statement: The school will seek to identify ways in which its existing personnel resources can be leveraged to better serve at-risk students and direct them to the appropriate university support offices.

Institutional Capacity:

  • Collect and analyze data from institutional research, School of Business-specific data and surveys, and conduct interviews
  • Open dialogue with alumni, students and employers
  • Training and resources for success coach
  • Coordinate with Career Preparation and Business Connect on student/employer programming

Diverse and Equitable Community

  • Graduation rates of IMPACT business students (who meet with success coach) – monitor year-to-year retention rates
  • Percentage of minority students graduating with a business degree (Baseline: 2019-20 student demographics; benchmark: universitywide student demographics)

C. Implement Targeted Recruitment Strategies for Underrepresented Minority Students:

The School of Business Administration will implement targeted recruitment strategies for underrepresented groups by evaluating and updating digital and physical marketing materials for accessibility and inclusivity, and by confirming curriculum that connects a diverse student population to the workforce.

School of Business Strategic Plan: The School of Business Administration is committed to cultivating a diverse and equitable community and to develop our graduates to be valuable, constructive members of society through high-quality programs.

University Objectives:

  • Increase student diversity and inclusion to better represent the demographic composition of the state of Mississippi by (2.2):
    • Expanding student programs and alumni connections to enhance well-rounded education
    • Evaluating programs for relevancy to alumni panels who do hiring and are willing to invest time

Area(s) Responsible: Dean’s Office, Undergraduate Student Services, success coach, DEI liaisons, student organizations

Resources Statement: The school will seek to identify ways in which its existing personnel resources can be leveraged and will rely on the university for additional resources.

Institutional Capacity:

  • Collect and analyze application and enrollment data
  • Collaborate with Marketing and Communications to create inclusive marketing materials
  • Create network of alumni from underrepresented groups to identify resources in support of our students

Diverse and Equitable Community

  • Student Enrollment Demographics – gender and ethnicity (Baseline: 2019-20 student demographics; benchmark: peer institution business school student demographics)
  • Undergraduate Student Application Demographics – resident, minority and gender (Baseline: 2019-20 student demographics)

[1] Bensimon, E.M., Dowd, A.C., Witham, K. (2016). Five principles for enacting equity by design. Diversity and Democracy, The Equity Imperative. Winter 2016, Volume 19, No. 1.