The following five domains name the areas of practice through which inclusive excellence takes shape at UMBC. They are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. No domain stands alone.
- Individual Awareness & Growth Domain
Our community grows through ongoing reflection: on who we are, on the power we each carry, and on how our place in the world shapes our impact on others. This reflection is how we come to understand ourselves in relation to the wider community around us.
We meet this work with humility, staying open to feedback, meeting difference with curiosity rather than defensiveness, and taking responsibility for how we show up and shape this campus’s climate.
- Relational Engagement & Dialogue Domain
Our community builds relationships rooted in empathy, mutual respect, deep listening, and genuine engagement across differences.
We recognize dialogue as a generative practice that strengthens trust, creates shared meaning, and helps us work through the conflicts and disagreements that are a natural part of any living community.
Conflict, engaged with honesty and care, is an invitation to learn and deepen our commitment to one another. When we learn that someone has been harmed by our actions or words, we are committed to building restorative approaches that center accountability, repair, and the rebuilding of trust.
- Community Well-being & Belonging Domain
We cultivate a welcoming, respectful, and affirming environment where every person belongs and matters. Individual presence, perspective, and contribution are recognized as essential to the health of our whole community.
Well-being at UMBC encompasses our emotional, mental, material, and relational health. This includes committing to shared norms and practices that support inclusion, care, and collective well-being across our physical spaces, daily interactions, and institutional structures.
- Institutional Structures & Shared Responsibility Domain
Inclusive excellence is not the work of one office or one initiative. Every member of our community–students, faculty, staff, alumni, administrators, and community partners alike–has a role in shaping our culture and contributing to the broader public good.
Equity guides how we examine, build, and transform the systems, policies, and structures that shape academic, employment, residential, and social life at UMBC. We commit to sustaining genuine pathways for participation in decision-making.
We acknowledge that, within our shared responsibility for inclusive excellence, while we all must ensure that what we commit to is reflected in how we actually operate, those with institutional power bear greater accountability for modeling, enacting, and protecting our shared values.
- Learning, Curriculum, Pedagogy & Research Domain
We foster learning environments, in classrooms, labs, studios, residence halls, community spaces, and beyond, that center diverse perspectives, remove barriers to full participation, and connect academic inquiry to real-world meaning and impact. How we teach, what we teach, and how we conduct research all reflect our commitment to equity, access, and making meaningful contributions to the public good.
We actively protect academic freedom while cultivating respectful learning climates where every voice can be heard.
