Diversity Mission Statement

We support and uphold UMass Amherst’s responsibility “to provide access and opportunities for all people, while demonstrating our commitment to inclusion of historically underrepresented groups. We believe that a culturally diverse campus is integral to academic excellence and that our students, faculty, and staff should reflect the diverse world in which we live.”

In the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA), we seek to understand humankind’s common experiences and the unique insights and expressions of individuals and groups. We hope to assimilate the knowledge this understanding brings, and use it to contribute to and improve campus culture and the global society. Awareness, acceptance, identity, and justice are driving forces behind our scholarship, teaching, and research.

As such, we support and share UMass Amherst’s responsibility “to provide access and opportunities for all people, while demonstrating our commitment to inclusion of historically underrepresented groups. We believe that a culturally diverse campus is integral to academic excellence and that our students, faculty, and staff should reflect the diverse world in which we live.” HFA upholds this responsibility by offering a rigorous curriculum and developing critical thinking skills to understand various forms of difference and their historical and contemporary significance, committing academic advising services to underrepresented student populations, maintaining a low student-to-faculty ratio and offering individualized student support, and mindfully encouraging fair representation among faculty and staff.

Without a “wide range of voices and perspectives,” the work of our faculty and students—linguists, storytellers, historians, interpreters, thinkers, singers, actors, and artists among them—would lack in substance. We keenly value different points of view. HFA supports and upholds the campus commitment to “policies that promote inclusiveness, social justice, and respect for all, regardless of race, color, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, age, national or ethnic origin, physical or mental disability, political belief or affiliation, marital status, veteran status, immigration status, gender identity and expression, genetic information, or any other characteristic or status protected by state or federal laws.”