“Inclusive Excellence� is the ’s for leveraging the strengths of diversity to support student learning and promote institutional excellence.

Inclusive Excellence has four components (AAC&U, 2005):

  • A focus on student intellectual and social development
  • A purposeful development and utilization of organizational resources to enhance student learning
  • Attention to the cultural differences learners bring to the educational experience and that enhance the enterprise
  • A welcoming community that engages all of its diversity in the service of student and organizational learning

Inclusion is an active process that values and engages every individual as co-creators and co-owners of our Âé¶¹´«Ã½¹ÙÍø culture.

An inclusive culture of excellence means that we embrace the richness of the diversity God created and that we carry the 59 “one another� scriptures with us throughout our Hope community and beyond.

Inclusive excellence is central to our mission, which calls us to “educate students for lives of leadership and service in a global society... in the context of the historic Christian faith.�

“Hospitality is a hallmark of the Christian faith. Hope seeks to be a community that affirms the dignity of all persons as bearers of God’s image.�
—Hope’s Christian Aspirations

What We're Doing

The college is committed to:

  • Responding to the Racial Equity Steering Committee recommendations regarding inclusive excellence submitted in 2021
  • Living into the standalone space for cultural engagement and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion
  • Facilitating a culture of belonging through campus-wide Culture Action Team (CAT) efforts and events

In fall 2020, Âé¶¹´«Ã½¹ÙÍø was accepted as an . Hope’s TRHT core team includes staff, faculty, administrators, students and community partners.

Overview of Previous and Ongoing Work
  • Facilitated a culture of belonging through campus-wide culture action teams (2020)
  • Dedicated a standalone space for cultural engagement and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (2020)
  • Created a Racial Equity Steering Committee to receive and respond to community suggestions and concerns and address inclusive excellence across campus (2020)
  • NCAA Athletics Diversity and Inclusion Designee (ADID, 2020) 
  • Higher Learning Commission Quality Initiative: Culture and Inclusion Unit Champions (2020)
  • AAC&U Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Institute (summer 2020)
  • NetVUE Grant: Vocational Exploration for Every Student (2019)
  • Student Congress Culture & Inclusion Committee (2019)
  • Higher Learning Commission 1.C. Working Group (2019)
  • Newcomers events (2019)
  • Culture Action Team (2020–21)
  • Culture Task Force (2019–20)
  • Pulse Survey data sharing (2019)
  • Shalom Global Fellows (2019)
  • Advanced IGD facilitation for faith-based institutions (summer 2019)
  • Intergroup Dialogue Institute (summer 2019)
  • Hope Faculty Fellows program (2019)
  • Culture and diversity items added to annual performance evaluations (2019)
  • Board of Trustees Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion sessions (2019)
  • Campus Climate Survey data sharing (2018)
  • Retention, Equity, and Access – drop-in lunch series (2018)
  • Pre-College Conference – Accessibility is for Everyone: Equity, Access and Inclusion (2018)
  • Accessibility Ambassadors Training (2018)
  • Student Congress Chief of Culture and Inclusion & Elect positions (2018)
  • New employee orientation Culture, Inclusion, and Applied Response to Bias Session (2018)
  • Safe Colleges online professional development: Discrimination Awareness in the Workplace (available through Human Resources, 2018)
  • DEI sessions at staff Pro-Dev Day (hosted by Human Resources, 2018)
  • Institutional priorities: diversity, culture and inclusion (2018–19 and 2019–20)
  • Chief Officer for Culture and Inclusion position created in the President’s Office (2018)
  • Internationalization Audit (2017)
  • ADA Accessibility Assessment (2017)
  • Center for Diversity and Inclusion Diversity Institute (2017)
  • Implemented training on diverse hiring practices and implicit bias in hiring (2017)
  • Implementing new active recruitment, hiring and search committee procedures to recruit diverse applicant pools (2017)
  • Equity Resolution Panel (ERP) – reviews nondiscrimination policy allegations (2017)
  • Nondiscrimination Policy Revision (including Title IX and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, disability, age, etc., to move to a civil rights policy model, 2017)
  • Development of workplace culture statement and values (2016)
  • Special Assistant to the President for Culture and Inclusion position (2015–2018)
  • Great Place to Work®ï¸� Trust Index Survey©ï¸� data sharing and listening sessions (2015 & 2017)

Where We Are Right Now

Retention rates

  • Underrepresented groups: 86%
  • International students: 100%

4-year graduation rates

  • Underrepresented groups: 53%
  • International students: 79%

2020 Fall Enrollment

  • The incoming 2020 class is 19.7% AHANA (African, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian, Native American and multiracial descent)
  • Second most diverse class in Hope's history (2014 incoming class was 20.1% AHANA)

Strategic Plan: Hope for the World 2025

Goal 4: Community:
Âé¶¹´«Ã½¹ÙÍø will be a community unified by its inspiring mission, strengthened by its diversity, and committed to the flourishing of every individual as one created and loved by God.

Student population stats

  • Approximately 18% students from underrepresented backgrounds (domestic and international)
  • Students from more than 30 countries study at Hope

Employee population stats

  • 29% of tenure-track faculty are from historically underrepresented backgrounds

Board of Trustees

  • 22% of trustees are from historically underrepresented backgrounds (2019–2020)

Workplace Culture

  • Âé¶¹´«Ã½¹ÙÍø has again been selected in 2020 as one of “West Michigan’s 101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work Forâ€�! This will be the 15th year that Âé¶¹´«Ã½¹ÙÍø has been honored with this award.
  • In 2017, Hope was recognized as a certified Great Place to Work®ï¸�

On-Campus Resources

StudentÌýPrograms & Services
Student Groups & Organizations
Academic Programs
Faith Formation
Employee Services
Community Involvement