UW-Madison Vice-Provost Dr. Damon Williams
Seeding Inclusive Excellence
Seeding Inclusive Excellence
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 3 of 3
When Dr. Damon Williams came to the UW-Madison in July 2008 as vice provost
for diversity and equity, he took the first year to become intimately knowledgeable
about the university before he began to act. What he found was a small city of
approximately 50,000 people composed of semi-independent schools and colleges and
special interest and advocacy groups for just about every cause imaginable.
As a nationally-renown expert on diversity issues in higher education, Williams
had the wisdom to listen first before acting during his first year. Now it is time to act.
For Williams, to get inclusive excellence imbued into the fabric of everyday
campus life, it will take a three-pronged approach. “It can’t be a top down conversation
by itself,” Williams noted. “It can’t be a bottom up conversation by itself. It can’t be a
conversation that moves across the campus by itself. It has to be all three of those
things. We have to find a way for the ideas to bubble up. We have to find a way for them
to cascade down. We have to find a way for them to virally move institutionally.”
One of the most important things, according to Williams, is to infuse inclusive
Part 3 of 3
When Dr. Damon Williams came to the UW-Madison in July 2008 as vice provost
for diversity and equity, he took the first year to become intimately knowledgeable
about the university before he began to act. What he found was a small city of
approximately 50,000 people composed of semi-independent schools and colleges and
special interest and advocacy groups for just about every cause imaginable.
As a nationally-renown expert on diversity issues in higher education, Williams
had the wisdom to listen first before acting during his first year. Now it is time to act.
For Williams, to get inclusive excellence imbued into the fabric of everyday
campus life, it will take a three-pronged approach. “It can’t be a top down conversation
by itself,” Williams noted. “It can’t be a bottom up conversation by itself. It can’t be a
conversation that moves across the campus by itself. It has to be all three of those
things. We have to find a way for the ideas to bubble up. We have to find a way for them
to cascade down. We have to find a way for them to virally move institutionally.”
One of the most important things, according to Williams, is to infuse inclusive
excellence into the very fiber of the university’s mission. “Once we have a principles, values and purpose statement, something that talks about
inclusion and excellence and how they are fundamental to who we are and what we believe, once we have that document, then it becomes a
part of the department chair’s orientation,” Williams said. “That document becomes a part of student SOAR. That document becomes a part of the
work that we are doing with leadership development programs we do with the CIC. It becomes a part of the work we are doing in human
resource development. So we infuse it in different places. In that document, one of the things that I would like to do is propose different
principles, values and ideas of how we go about doing business around here. For example, one of the things we are talking about is committees.
Rather than leave it to the ambiguity of what we would hope to have happen to make inclusion and excellence, we would articulate those things
there such that every committee knows that. Now if they choose to do it or not do it, that is another conversation.”
Traditional approaches to affirmative action have typically treated affirmative action as a last minute thought as opposed to a central part of
the decision-making processes of the university. Affirmative action and diversity are not something benevolent that the university does. Rather, it
is something that is crucial and intrinsic in everything the university does if the university is to remain a world-class university throughout the
21st century.
“Inclusive excellence becomes a natural part of the organic way that we behave,” Williams said. “To give a perfect example, the idea that
whenever we put together an institutional committee here, we know we have to have a student voice on that committee. It’s a part of the culture.
It’s a part of the policy environment institutionally. Why couldn’t we say that whenever we put together a committee, we have to ensure that we
have someone on that group or in multiples that have a real keen perspective on these issues? I’m not saying that person has to be a member of
a certain identity group. That’s not the issue. I’m saying a perspective on these issues such that when we go out and try to get something done,
we always have that perspective there because it is what we value. It is what we believe. It is what we know to be very important. At the same
time too, when that committee comes together, everyone knows there is an expectation that each person has at some level we have to ask ‘Is
there any relevance for this conversation of inclusion and excellence?’ ‘Is there any relevance here for this conversation around how diversity
factors into this?’ And it’s not just the person who is asked to be on that group who has that specific perspective, but it is each person on that
group would know that is culturally how we do business here. I have this kind of dream that if we flash forward five years and you ask any
student, faculty or staff person to define inclusive excellence, they would say that excellence is inclusion and inclusion is excellence and you
have to have both.”
One of the areas that Williams hopes inclusive excellence will have an impact is the hiring of more faculty and staff of color. Once the
expectation of inclusive excellence is infused into the UW culture, then it would help guide the hiring process. “It is asking the question ‘Did we
get a diverse pool for an administrative role or a faculty role,’” Williams asked. “Did we not get that diverse pool because maybe we didn’t do
things that would allow that diverse pool to come out? Did we think so narrowly about talent that we couldn’t see the person coming from a
HBCU? Did we think so narrowly about talent that we didn’t even take the time to go out and actively recruit to different types of communities or
different types of groups? Did we infuse an expectation that the individual that would be hired would not only be a great chemist or a great
biologist or a great senior leader, but that person would also importantly have experiences with diverse issues, that had illustrated a
commitment at some level because we value those things so much that we put them in each and every job description? This isn’t to say that this
is the skill set that is going to trump them being a great biologist because we need great biologists around here. But it is saying ‘Where does that
enter into the conversation?’ That’s where I would love to go so that these things would become a part of the expectation of how we do business.
It may not simply be that we didn’t hire someone. Maybe it’s that we didn’t effectively search for someone. We didn’t effectively continue to
operate in a way that was going to allow for us to diversify the environment.”
And inclusive excellence means that all students — regardless of their backgrounds — receive the kind of educational experience that will
prepare them for a diverse global economy in which they will work.
“The question is where do you have those intimate experiences with diversity that prepare you for the age of Obama, that prepare you for
issues of identity that play out in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, power, privilege and economic background,” Williams
said. “How are we preparing our students for that if you come from a community where you didn’t see it? We have to make sure that more
students are involved in the great work we are doing around service learning in our Morgridge Center that more involved in study abroad
experiences. How are we supporting and ensuring that our students are getting those opportunities, not just students that come from the most
privileged backgrounds, but students who come from the most vulnerable backgrounds as well. That for me is being about an equitable
institution.”
Inclusive excellence means that we change the way we think about and work toward diversity. It’s a matter of success as much as it is
about justice.
inclusion and excellence and how they are fundamental to who we are and what we believe, once we have that document, then it becomes a
part of the department chair’s orientation,” Williams said. “That document becomes a part of student SOAR. That document becomes a part of the
work that we are doing with leadership development programs we do with the CIC. It becomes a part of the work we are doing in human
resource development. So we infuse it in different places. In that document, one of the things that I would like to do is propose different
principles, values and ideas of how we go about doing business around here. For example, one of the things we are talking about is committees.
Rather than leave it to the ambiguity of what we would hope to have happen to make inclusion and excellence, we would articulate those things
there such that every committee knows that. Now if they choose to do it or not do it, that is another conversation.”
Traditional approaches to affirmative action have typically treated affirmative action as a last minute thought as opposed to a central part of
the decision-making processes of the university. Affirmative action and diversity are not something benevolent that the university does. Rather, it
is something that is crucial and intrinsic in everything the university does if the university is to remain a world-class university throughout the
21st century.
“Inclusive excellence becomes a natural part of the organic way that we behave,” Williams said. “To give a perfect example, the idea that
whenever we put together an institutional committee here, we know we have to have a student voice on that committee. It’s a part of the culture.
It’s a part of the policy environment institutionally. Why couldn’t we say that whenever we put together a committee, we have to ensure that we
have someone on that group or in multiples that have a real keen perspective on these issues? I’m not saying that person has to be a member of
a certain identity group. That’s not the issue. I’m saying a perspective on these issues such that when we go out and try to get something done,
we always have that perspective there because it is what we value. It is what we believe. It is what we know to be very important. At the same
time too, when that committee comes together, everyone knows there is an expectation that each person has at some level we have to ask ‘Is
there any relevance for this conversation of inclusion and excellence?’ ‘Is there any relevance here for this conversation around how diversity
factors into this?’ And it’s not just the person who is asked to be on that group who has that specific perspective, but it is each person on that
group would know that is culturally how we do business here. I have this kind of dream that if we flash forward five years and you ask any
student, faculty or staff person to define inclusive excellence, they would say that excellence is inclusion and inclusion is excellence and you
have to have both.”
One of the areas that Williams hopes inclusive excellence will have an impact is the hiring of more faculty and staff of color. Once the
expectation of inclusive excellence is infused into the UW culture, then it would help guide the hiring process. “It is asking the question ‘Did we
get a diverse pool for an administrative role or a faculty role,’” Williams asked. “Did we not get that diverse pool because maybe we didn’t do
things that would allow that diverse pool to come out? Did we think so narrowly about talent that we couldn’t see the person coming from a
HBCU? Did we think so narrowly about talent that we didn’t even take the time to go out and actively recruit to different types of communities or
different types of groups? Did we infuse an expectation that the individual that would be hired would not only be a great chemist or a great
biologist or a great senior leader, but that person would also importantly have experiences with diverse issues, that had illustrated a
commitment at some level because we value those things so much that we put them in each and every job description? This isn’t to say that this
is the skill set that is going to trump them being a great biologist because we need great biologists around here. But it is saying ‘Where does that
enter into the conversation?’ That’s where I would love to go so that these things would become a part of the expectation of how we do business.
It may not simply be that we didn’t hire someone. Maybe it’s that we didn’t effectively search for someone. We didn’t effectively continue to
operate in a way that was going to allow for us to diversify the environment.”
And inclusive excellence means that all students — regardless of their backgrounds — receive the kind of educational experience that will
prepare them for a diverse global economy in which they will work.
“The question is where do you have those intimate experiences with diversity that prepare you for the age of Obama, that prepare you for
issues of identity that play out in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, power, privilege and economic background,” Williams
said. “How are we preparing our students for that if you come from a community where you didn’t see it? We have to make sure that more
students are involved in the great work we are doing around service learning in our Morgridge Center that more involved in study abroad
experiences. How are we supporting and ensuring that our students are getting those opportunities, not just students that come from the most
privileged backgrounds, but students who come from the most vulnerable backgrounds as well. That for me is being about an equitable
institution.”
Inclusive excellence means that we change the way we think about and work toward diversity. It’s a matter of success as much as it is
about justice.
UW-Madison Vice-Provost Damon Williams is beginning the
task of seeding inclusive excellence among the UW-
Madison’s colleges, schools and departments
task of seeding inclusive excellence among the UW-
Madison’s colleges, schools and departments
