Four Pillars of Advancing EDI

4 pillars of inclsuive excellence, illustrated as overlapping shapes - accountability, engagement, education, and inclusive leadership

UCLA’s mission as a public research university is the creation, dissemination, preservation and application of knowledge for the betterment of our global society. We can best advance this mission when UCLA’s values of equity, diversity and inclusion are upheld for our students, staff, faculty and throughout the UCLA community. With almost 45,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional school students; 43,000 staff, faculty and other employees; over 500,000 alumni; retirees; and community and government partners, people are UCLA’s greatest strength and the reason UCLA is the leading public university in the U.S.

UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) supports all Bruins by leading and advancing strategies for enhancing equity, diversity and inclusion; protecting civil rights; and upholding dignity for all in our community. Articulated by UCLA’s Principles of Community, we believe that diversity is critical to maintaining excellence in all our endeavors. We seek to foster open-mindedness, understanding, compassion and inclusiveness among individuals and groups. We are committed to ensuring freedom of expression and dialogue. We value differences as well as commonalities and promote respect in personal interactions. We do not tolerate acts of discrimination, harassment or conduct causing harm to individuals on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religious beliefs, political preference, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship or national origin.

We work with the UCLA community and partners to advance EDI through four pillars that aim to intentionally incorporate our values into UCLA’s mission, priorities and culture.

Overview of Four Pillars

diverse group of people in a meeting space with laptops discussing something together

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Inclusive Leadership

Advancing equity, diversity and inclusion requires consistent and committed leadership at every level of the university. Inclusive leadership sets forth expectations for all leaders to serve our community with a deep commitment to modeling UCLA’s values by treating everyone with respect and dignity. Inclusive leaders foster a climate where everyone, from students in a course, staff members on a team, or faculty in a department are authentically valued, acknowledged and included. Inclusive leadership expects leaders to be continual learners and supports and acknowledges leaders for success in these areas. Learn more about how the EDI Leadership Team is adopting an inclusive leadership framework.

lightbulb placed on a chalkboard with drawn idea bubbles next to it

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Education

Education is fundamental to building common values, norms and behaviors that uphold equity, diversity and inclusion. When we learn together, we grow together. EDI provides all UCLA employees with a shared foundational educational experience through the UCLA EDI Education Series; mandatory civil rights training for students and employees; and optional educational courses, programs and self-learning resources available on the UCLA EDI Education Hub. EDI also provides faculty serving on search committees with a required online Faculty Search Briefing training.

Advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in UCLA’s academic mission is also a vital part of our work. We partner with academic units on key initiatives to enhance inclusion for our community.

the edi team and bruins at the 2022 ucla enormous activities fair

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Engagement

Engaging the community and facilitating connection is a core principle of our EDI mission at UCLA. Research on evidence-driven best practices drive our engagement efforts. EDI’s Equity Advisor program creates connections between our office and each academic unit at UCLA. The UCLA EDI Network draws together programs and initiatives from across UCLA and provides Bruins with information and the opportunity to engage in the work of EDI. EDI’s initiatives and partnerships work with Bruins to advance new policies and priorities. EDI Events provide the Bruin community an opportunity to gather, learn from leading experts and one another, and to build community. Engagement through regular communication helps inform the UCLA community about successes as well as needed areas of growth. The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is committed to keeping the UCLA community informed of what we do through the Vice Chancellor’s Quarterly Updates, regular updates on the EDI website and UCLA social media posts.

diverse hands coming together in support and solidarity

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Accountability

When a community is committed to advancing a common mission with shared values, it harnesses the power of collective action and impact. Here, accountability is key. Holding ourselves accountable to our values is fundamental to our mission, success, impact and our well-being. Through the investigations and findings of the EDI Civil Rights Office, we work to uphold UCLA’s commitment to protect civil rights and promote anti-discrimination. Our work in this area is reported annually through the EDI Public Accountability Report to promote transparency. EDI also produces UCLA’s federally mandated Affirmative Action reports. The EDI Data Hub and Dashboards provide demographic data and advance EDI’s commitment to facilitating data-informed decision making, transparency and accountability.

At UCLA, EDI is everyone’s responsibility. Learn more about EDI’s impact, support for the UCLA community and ways to join the mission. We welcome your feedback by email at WeListen@equity.ucla.edu.