The University of Houston and the UH Law Center have received the 2020 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
“It is gratifying to see this continued validation for the work the University of Houston and the UH Law Center have achieved to build a diverse culture on our campus,” said Paula Myrick Short, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “The HEED Award is a reminder of the importance of building an inclusive campus community, and we are committed to that work.”
The University of Houston-Downtown also received the 2020 HEED Award, which is given annually to U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.
HEED Award winners will be featured in the November issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. This is the fifth consecutive year that UH and the UH Law Center have received the award.
The award is open to all colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. It measures an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs and outreach; student recruitment, retention and completion; as well as faculty hiring practices.
As one of the nation’s most diverse public research universities, located in a city that consistently is ranked among the most diverse in the country, UH has focused on retaining the diversity of its student body while raising academic standards. It is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution by the U. S. Department of Education.
The University also is committed to increasing faculty diversity; it established the Center for ADVANCING UH Faculty Success with a $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to increase the number of women and women-of-color faculty members in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as the social and behavioral sciences.
As a result, the number of tenured and tenure-track female faculty members in STEM has grown by 20.3% over the past five years, while the number of underrepresented minority tenured and tenure-track faculty members in all disciplines has increased by 42% over the same period.