Advancing Equity and Justice

The Ross Commitment to Action seeks to create real and lasting change in justice, equity, belonging, and inclusion in business and beyond, by elevating diverse voices across the Ross School, focusing on diversity in scholarship, training faculty and staff, and diversifying Ross’ supply chain.

46%

OF THE INCOMING 2021 MBA CLASS WERE WOMEN

36%

OF THE 2021 INCOMING MBA CLASS WERE US STUDENTS OF COLOR

28%

OF THE 2021 INCOMING MBA CLASS WERE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

TOP 10

POETS & QUANTS 2021

BUSINESS SCHOOLS TO WATCH, CITING ROSS’ DEI WORK

Advocacy at Ross

Grassroots student advocacy has been a hallmark of the work at Ross and U-M at-large for years. The Black Business Students Association at Ross began in 1970 with a mandate to increase minority enrollment, improve member academic performance, and retain black business students at both the BBA and MBA levels. Today, this group is more active than ever—hosting the 45th annual Alfred L Edwards Conference in 2021—and serving as a benchmark for similar groups across the country.

The BBA Council and MBA Task Force on Race work directly with the Ross Office of Diversity and Inclusion to encourage diversity and inclusion by hosting regular touchpoints like the Business+Dialogue Series, 100 for 100, and Meet the Clubs.

Other clubs at Ross like Michigan Business Women, Out for Business, Asian American Business Association, Women Who Launch, and many more seek to foster equity and diverse professional development for all.

Recently, the Business+Impact initiative, in collaboration with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion faculty committee and the Office of the Dean announced the creation of a set of new yearly research awards to celebrate and honor research related to diversity, equity and inclusion. 2021 winners included Sarah Miller (Business Economics & Public Policy), Mohamed Mostagir (Technology & Operations), and 14 PH.D student Virginia Traweek (Finance), with a BBA senior thesis winner: Karthik Nagappan.

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Business & Society Lecture Series

This unique social impact series of lectures focused its program during the 2020-2021 academic year on issues regarding race and business as part of the Ross Commitment to Action. Events focused on topics ranging from the role of business in tackling systematic oppression to addressing problems related to racial injustice.

Diversity Week

At Ross we believe that a broad-based, diverse community is essential to the character of our school. The Women in Leadership and UpClose conferences are an integral part of our continuous commitment to a diverse student body. Nicknamed Diversity Week, these yearly events include programming developed by students from Michigan Business Women and Ross’ Consortium Community to improve the visibility of underrepresented students in business schools and in management.

Diversity in Real Estate

In the summer of 2020, Stephen M. Ross and Jeff T. Blau committed $6 million to support the Blau Initiative for Diversity in Real Estate and Infrastructure and the Related Scholars Fund, both of which are designed to attract and support students from diverse environments who are underrepresented in real estate and investing. With support from the Blau Initiative, the Weiser Center for Real Estate is creating critical partnerships in order to deliver programming that will support these populations at the high school and college level in accessing, exploring, and ultimately confirming a path in the field.

The Consortium

Since its inception in 1983, Ross has been a member of The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, an alliance of leading American business schools and some of the United States’ top corporations. The mission of The Consortium is to enhance diversity in business education and leadership by helping to reduce the serious underrepresentation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans in both its member schools’ enrollments and the ranks of management. We encourage all prospective MBA students with a demonstrated commitment to increasing the participation of underrepresented groups to apply through The Consortium.