More specifically:

• Latinx applicants increased by 13%
• Black or African American applicants rose by 10%
• The share of domestic applicants identifying as Black or African American grew from 13.3% to 14%
• And lastly, white applicants’ share of the applicant pool continued its long-term decline, dropping from 48.2% to 45.7%

All’s to say, it is inevitable.

As a society, we are becoming increasingly diverse. As much as some people want to ignore it, this is a *fact*, not an opinion. The underrepresented populations are *growing* ?? and it isn’t going to stop.

Also a fact, younger generations – like the Gen Z students talked about in the article – are becoming more globalized and more nuanced and more unique by the day. (Check out these supporting statistics about Gen Z)

So, if you’re a higher ed marketer or communicator looking to resonate with your diverse student population, you need to prioritize underrepresented students today. It’s no longer a nice-to-have or even a secondary focus, it needs to be your main priority.

So, how do you go about? Here are some brief tips:

✅ Focus on hyper-personalization
✅ Focus on deep, culturally nuanced storytelling
✅ Invest in in-depth culturally competent research
❌ Stop being afraid of being too specific
❌ Get rid of homogenous messaging
❌ Get rid of watered-down “diversity check-box” stories

These tips are only scratching the surface, but you still need to do these things if you have any hope at all of reaching and resonating the increasingly diverse student population.

Visit our Higher Ed Inclusive Marketing Online Hub and keep up-to-date and informed on all things relevant to Higher Ed Inclusive marketing, advertising and communications across the globe.

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What stands out most to us in The New York Times article written last Fall, is the complete lack of buy-in from the people who matter most on campus – the students. Whilst teachers and faculty admire the work done, it isn’t translating for students:

➡️ “Mboup called Michigan’s efforts ‘superficial.’ For all their spread and reach, she told me, the school’s D.E.I. programs betrayed ‘a general discomfort with naming Blackness explicitly.'”

➡️ “I met students with a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. Not one expressed any particular enthusiasm for Michigan’s D.E.I. initiative. Where some found it shallow, others found it stifling.”

➡️ “[Students]” rolled their eyes at the profusion of course offerings that revolve around identity and oppression, the D.E.I.-themed emails they frequently received but rarely read.”

In order for the complex web of inclusion, marketing/communications, and student life to work, it has to feel authentic. It has to be approachable, it has to be sold to the right people, and most importantly, its success measures need to actually come from the students themselves – as they stand to benefit most from the work.

So, how do you get buy-in from students?

As we always say at AndHumanity, it’s progress, not perfection. Where University of Michigan is at now should not be seen as a misstep or wasted time, but rather, just another part of the journey. It’s at this stage that the university needs to put the focus back on the students, be open to adjusting their strategy and tactics, and most importantly, involve the students in this transition.

And the first step to getting buy-in with any group is to ask. Like our agency’s guiding principle, “Nothing About Us, Without Us”, students want to be a part of the creation of the strategy at its highest level, with the ability to actually influence the tactics and outcomes. Ensure the engagement is psychological safe, includes diverse lived experience, practices ongoing consent, and most importantly, treat it as a meaningful relationship building opportunity – rather than a one-time, extractive, and transactional relationship.

If the University of Michigan genuinely believes in their DEI strategy – which it seems it does – they also need to understand that strategies are meant to evolve and change especially when those who stand to benefit most from it, aren’t seeing its value.

Relevant update as of Jan 29, 2025: As per Lansing State Journal, “Officials at Michigan State University are scrambling to determine what impact its extensive diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programs could have on the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that flow into the university. President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order terminating “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” for organizations that receive federal funding, and added that universities with endowments larger than $1 billion – in Michigan that’s MSU and the University of Michigan – could be investigated for their DEI programs and policies.“

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The post A Major Opportunity for Canadian Higher Ed Institutes Today appeared first on AndHumanity.

This short video clip is exactly what we mean when we say “increasing reach” with diverse and underrepresented communities is much different (and just as necessary) as “increasing resonance” with these same communities.

So many Higher Ed Institutes we talk to focus so much on increasing enrolments via diverse communities, but fail to realize a lot of inclusive and meaningful connections and opportunities exist right on campus.

“Access Ain’t Inclusion” as Anthony Abraham Jack illustrates in this TEDxCambridge talk summarizes this topic perfectly. Listen to him speak on “office hours”, “spring break” and much more in the full video here.

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The post A Message for Higher Ed Institutes | “Access Ain’t Inclusion” appeared first on AndHumanity.

As this data continues to be released over the years, it’s important to note the forgotten consequence in all of this. The obvious consequences are covered in a variety of places (holding up systemic inequities against marginalized folks etc.), but what we haven’t seen talked about enough is how the false narrative we’ve heard for centuries has been and is going to continue to be re-cemented in current and future generations’ minds. This – of course – is the ongoing false narrative that many POC have only been able to attend these institutions because of a quota.

As statistics continue to be released over the years and the media continues to cover this story, this narrative will only continue to be reinforced – regardless of what the statistics show.

Because although many of us want numbers, facts, and logic to tell the story, oftentimes, it’s the story that has existed the longest that is the one that ends up being remembered.

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The post The Forgotten Consequence of Banning Affirmative Action appeared first on AndHumanity.

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