Diversity Advisory Council

In 1999 President Cohon issued his first diversity statement to explain to our university community why diversity is important to the institution. Also in that year, the President’s Diversity Advisory Council (DAC) was formed. In April 2000 the DAC issued a position paper on assessing the problem of diversity at Carnegie Mellon. The original document identified the key problems or challenges relating to diversity which were facing the university. These challenges included culture and climate, representation and community consciousness.

Over the years, Carnegie Mellon has acknowledged more and more the enormous added value and opportunity derived from engaging a diverse, interdisciplinary community. We have seen this articulated in the Carnegie Mellon Vision, Mission, and Values statement and, most recently, its 2008 Strategic Plan.

Using the above as rationale, in 2009 President Cohon charged the DAC to review its 1999 Problem Statement and aim to take it from a "problem statement to something much more motivating and actionable." The result was "A Guiding Principle for University Culture." This document has two key actionable components: bringing together talent that is broadly representative and maintaining an environment that fosters meaningful and authentic exchanges which will add to our students’ knowledge and skills and engender in all of us a global perspective, which forms the basis for the Council’s current work.