EMU DEI Grants 

EMU seeks to promote a culture of belonging, where every person can find their place in a vibrant community of communities. The Office of DEI developed the Inclusive Excellence Grants Program to help bring the EMU vision to life for every member of our community. Students, faculty, and staff all have important perspectives to share. This program aims to elevate diverse narratives, advance transformative change, and enhance opportunities for learning and growth in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. 

Advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging does not have to be large-scale and daunting; it can happen in incremental steps. The Inclusive Excellence Grants program offers EMU faculty, staff, and students the opportunity to develop ideas that advance a community of learners where everyone has an opportunity to grow, learn, and belong together.

Grants of up to $1,200 will be awarded to support projects that foster collaborative programming and serve as catalysts for structural change that advance DEI. The total number of awards will depend on the number and quality of the proposals received.

Applicants are encouraged to develop creative and innovative projects in line with the program objectives listed in the RFP. Examples of possible initiatives include:

• Workshops/training/facilitated discussions on how to be an ally to international students, first-generation students, or other underrepresented groups; create safe spaces; engage with toxic masculinity; decenter whiteness; educate on gender inclusive language; foster religious inclusiveness, heal from past injustices, etc.
• Hosting professional development DEI workshops for students, faculty, and/or staff 
• Art projects such as posters, murals, and tapestries to create spaces of belonging 
• Historical DEI milestones
• Pop-up museums
• Inclusive pedagogy training to assist with curriculum development and implementation (e.g., queer pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, critical pedagogy, indigenous pedagogies)
• Initiatives that support recruiting and retaining diverse students, staff, and faculty
• Advancing success for underrepresented groups (e.g., graduation, promotion, tenure)
• Photovoice projects
• Archives and collections of the experiences/history of underrepresented groups at EMU
• Advancing disability awareness and equity
• Embedding diversity and inclusiveness into policies, procedures, or other structural aspects of the university that invite students, faculty, and staff to join our community.

Some important benefits of this program include:

• Participants will have the funding to pursue ideas for growth and enhanced learning in support of equity and justice at EMU. 
• Participants have the opportunity to conduct these projects alongside a supportive, diverse, interdisciplinary community of grantees. 
• The EMU community will benefit from the creative, insightful, and innovative learning opportunities generated by this initiative. 

The Inclusive Excellence Grant Program initiatives and terms are set annually by the Vice President of DEI with input from the EMU community. The terms for the program are outlined in the Request for Proposals. Grant applications will be reviewed by a subgroup of the CODI Committee. This subgroup will include students, staff, and faculty. 

All selected applicants are required to provide a follow-up report documenting the impact of the program/initiative/event.  Awardees are responsible for sharing their project and its impacts with the EMU community through a workshop, panel discussion, presentation, art exhibit, and/or other method appropriate for the project/program. Details are provided in the RFP.

Please note the following key dates for the inaugural cycle of the Inclusive Excellence Grants Program:

Click here to apply: https://moodle.emu.edu/enrol/index.php?id=22552

This program is built on the premise that curriculum is the very foundation of a university, and we believe that the systemic change should start with decentering Western and white perspectives across our curriculum in favor of inclusion of non-Western and non-white perspectives, experiences, and modes of knowledge.

By funding initiatives on diversity and inclusion, the Hertzler-Koshy Faculty Fellowship Grant Program supports the mission of EMU to prepare students “to serve and lead in a global context.” Faculty and students at EMU are agents of change and have the opportunity to impact curricula (graduate, undergraduate, intercultural programs, training) in ways that advance equity and justice.

While this learning and growth may sometimes be uncomfortable, the goal is for us to learn together in a no blame/shame environment that is accessible to everyone. Faculty are encouraged to consider ideas that enhance the curriculum in ways that support a community of learners and provide all EMU students with opportunities to grow, learn, and belong together.

Faculty members who are serving full-time and are passionate about infusing DEI in our curriculum are invited to apply in collaboration with at least one student.

Full-time faculty are eligible to apply for up to two-semester terms with a course reduction (i.e., 3 hours of load per semester). Mini-grants of up to $500 are available to applicants in addition to release time. The total number of awards will depend on the number and quality of the proposals received.

Applicants are encouraged to develop, in collaboration with a student(s), creative and innovative projects in line with the program objectives listed in the RFP. Examples of possible initiatives:

• Mentor/work with students to advance projects that analyze power and identity in systems and cultures through the lenses of anti-racism and anti-oppression to promote justice and equity in the curricula (undergraduate, graduate, intercultural program, non-credit training). 
• Mentor/collaborate with students to examine the stories that shape them, understand their own stories, and recognize the stories that shape their communities and the world. 
• Facilitate with students curricular audits to assess, integrate, and infuse diversity into the curriculum with a specific focus on race, ethnicity, disability, and gender content in the curricula.
• Develop, deliver, facilitate, and evaluate a DEI or antiracist-related training in collaboration with at least one student.
• Develop and pilot DEI/antiracist/sense of belonging evaluation and assessment tools. 
• Advance the implementation of DEI/antiracism/inclusive pedagogy/queer pedagogy/feminist pedagogy/indigenous pedagogy in the curricula (undergraduate, graduate, intercultural programs, training), elevate traditionally marginalized narratives, and identify opportunities where there is a need to diversify the content of courses, programs, and training.

Some important benefits of this program include:

• This program offers participants time and resources to expand their curriculum to be more diverse and inclusive of marginalized narratives. 
• The community of Faculty Fellows gives participants the opportunity to engage in this work in partnership with students in a supportive network of colleagues.
• The projects taken on by these Faculty Fellows will advance the university’s commitment to increasing a sense of belonging for all members of the EMU community. A more diverse and inclusive curriculum will prepare students to become unifying leaders.
• Upon request, the Vice President of DEI will provide letters of documentation to demonstrate efforts by Hertzler-Koshy Faculty fellows to support their annual reviews and/or their rank and tenure process.
• Upon request, the Vice President of DEI will provide a certificate to acknowledge the participation of students in this program as agents of transformational change.

The Hertzler-Koshy Faculty Fellowship Program initiatives and terms are set annually by the Vice President of DEI and the Provost with input from the EMU community. The terms for the program are outlined in the Request for Proposals. Fellowship Program applications will be reviewed by the Faculty Scholarship Committee and the Vice President of DEI.

Post-award reporting and sharing

All applicants selected for funding are required to provide a follow-up report documenting the impact of the program/initiative/event by the set deadline. Awardees will also be responsible for sharing their project and its impacts with the EMU community through a workshop, panel discussion, presentation, art exhibit, and/or other method appropriate for the project/program. Details are provided in the RFP.

Please note the following key dates for the Hertzler-Koshy Faculty Fellowship Grant Program:

An email will be sent out to qualified faculty  Sept. 30, 2023, letting them know that the Request for Proposal (RFP) is open. Application details will have a link to the Faculty Fellowship Moodle Course. Applications should be submitted via the Moodle course by Oct. 31, 2023 by 5p.m.