Practicing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
LAS Heading link
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) offers an excellent research-rich undergraduate and graduate education in a wide array of disciplines, invigorated by the excitement for learning of faculty and students from diverse economic, racial, ethnic, social, cultural backgrounds, and gender identities. LAS defines practicing diversity as the commitment to honoring difference, fostering inclusivity, and addressing inequity across and through the curriculum and in the demographic makeup of our student body.
LAS Demographics Heading link
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51 % Pell Grant Eligible
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38 % First-Generation Students
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68 % Minority Students, including Asian and Multi-Racial; 54% are Underrepresented Minorities
Diverse Ways of Knowing, Learning, and Acting Heading link
Through a liberal arts and sciences education, our diverse student body thrives intellectually and realizes its power to do good and effect change. Our mission is to provide an education that empowers all of our graduates to flourish as dedicated citizens, ready to fully participate and excel in tomorrow’s workforce. The value of a liberal arts and sciences education at UIC is anchored in practicing diversity as an academic pursuit and as a vehicle for access, inclusion, and positive social change.
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Core value
We are committed to providing access to a Research I education and be a pathway to self-realization for students of all economic, racial, social, and cultural backgrounds. LAS students share their passion for learning with one of the most racially and economically diverse student bodies in the nation.
LAS is equally focused on recruiting and retaining faculty invested in incorporating in their research and teaching our diverse student body’s perspectives and experiences and recognizing and celebrating its assets and diverse identifications. Over one-third of our faculty self-identifies as an underrepresented minority, and over sixty percent identify as women. Additionally, our academic advising staff is close to fifty percent made up of underrepresented minorities.
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Intellectual and social inclusivity
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are the foundations through which LAS students grow intellectually and personally. Our classes are centers of personal inquiry, research, and discovery where minds are nurtured and developed. Together with our world-class faculty, students explore real-world challenges and develop the knowledge and skills needed to find tangible answers to current and future social and scientific questions. Through coursework, student experiential opportunities, and community involvement, LAS students learn to critically explore differences, respect various perspectives, recognize and research the cost of social injustice and economic inequality, participate in dialogue, and build alliances conducive to and transformative social change and personal fulfillment. An LAS education is the crosswalk that leads to becoming an engaged citizen and lifelong personal and professional success.
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Commitment to our communities, local and global
At LAS practicing diversity translates to critically examining and pursuing a myriad of approaches to complex individual, social, economic, national, and international questions. The city of Chicago—one of the most diverse urban settings in the world—provides us with a robust backdrop where to envision and test potential solutions to our state’s and nation’s most pressing social, racial, economic, environmental, and health problems. An LAS education strengthens and motivates our students’ commitment to serving the communities—local and global—where they study, live, work, and that surround them.
