Equity and Diversity Certificate Program

Office for Equity and Diversity (OED) Education Program Update

Spring 2023

In Spring 2023, the Office for Equity and Diversity (OED) Education Program will continue to offer our Equity and Diversity Programming online through ECHO (Equity Certificate Hosted Online) via Zoom and Canvas.

For more information and to register, please scroll down this page. Additionally, if you would like to receive updates on our offerings, we recommend signing up for our OED Education Program Google group.

If you have any general questions or concerns, please contact us at oeded@umn.edu.

The Equity and Diversity Certificate Program helps learners develop tools necessary for advancing equity and diversity in all aspects of their personal and professional lives. The program:

Offers learners a theoretical framework for understanding equity and diversity work
Helps learners develop necessary skills for equity and diversity work
Gives learners direct experience working and communicating across differences

Registration Information

University of Minnesota Students, Staff, & Faculty

The Equity and Diversity Certificate program is free for all current staff, faculty and students on all five system campuses. To enroll in the Certificate Program use your university login and log into the Destiny One Registration System (DORS), and select add to cart for the Current UMN Staff/Faculty/Students.

Please see the FAQs if you have any questions or contact oeded@umn.edu.

External Learners

The Equity and Diversity Certificate program is available for a fee for external learners through Destiny One Registration System (DORS). Please find our fee structure below.

Self-Supporting Individual Bundle Rate : $900.00

Non-Profit/Government/Non-UMN Higher Education Institution Bundle Rate : $1,350.00

Business or Corporate Entity Bundle Rate : $1,575.00

We are committed to ensuring that all learners have access to our educational offerings regardless of ability to pay. The Education Program utilizes a need-based sliding scale scholarship program. Please consider paying at the highest rate that you can afford: your generosity supports the work of the Office for Equity and Diversity and the Education Program facilitation team.

Select one of the sliding scale rates below:

Partial Scholarship: 75% off program fee
University of Minnesota Alumni and/or Reduced Rate Scholarship: 50% off program fee
Full Scholarship: $0 program fee

Please let us know which of these rates works for you by completing our google form, and if you have any questions feel free to email us at oeded@umn.edu.

If our google form is not accepting responses, we have dispersed all available scholarships for the current semester. We will reopen the scholarship form for future semesters, please subscribe to the OED Education Program Google Group to be notified when registration and scholarship applications are open.

Equity and Diversity Certificate Program via ECHO

The ECHO (Equity Certificate Hosted Online) is the Office for Equity and Diversity's (OED) online Equity and Diversity Certificate program. The program consists of three learning activities: reading materials, watching or listening to video/audio clips, and Group Discussion participation. These activities represent and reflect three ways we can learn and grow in equity and diversity work – intellectual learning, emotional processing, and practicing skills.

Activity 1: Reading Materials - Each ECHO course will have articles or information for learners to read. This material focuses on an intellectual understanding of the concepts in the learning area.

Activity 2: Video/Audio Clips - Each ECHO course will have videos and/or audio clips for learner to listen/watch. These videos and/or audio clips focus on the emotional and intellectual understandings in the learning area.

Activity 3: Group Discussion - Each ECHO course features a 90-minute online discussion via Zoom that learners are required to join. Group discussions provide opportunities to respond to prompting questions related to the learning areas in activities 1 and 2 and share learners’ knowledge and skillsets.

Content Acknowledgement:
The course materials shared are intended to provide a foundational overview of information and issues related to the topic of this course. We acknowledge that given the scope of the course, we are unable to encompass every experience, identity, and/or issue that is relevant and important to the communities we will explore. If there are additional connections or issues you wish to include, we welcome you to uplift it during our group discussion. Lastly, this curriculum is a 'living document'; we will continue to expand and refine our materials as our learning and awareness continues to grow and evolve. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions at oeded@umn.edu.

Equity and Diversity Certificate Completion

10 Certificate Program Courses

After completing all ten courses, request your Equity and Diversity Certificate here.

Please note: Our office will be sending out the certificates via email at the end of each semester (fall, spring, and summer).

Resources and FAQs

10 Required Equity and Diversity Certificate ECHO Courses

FOUNDATIONAL COURSES:

ECHO: My Role in Equity and Diversity Work

If “diversity is everybody’s everyday work,” then what is my role? This foundational course introduces learners to the core concepts around equity, diversity, and social justice. Key topics include foundational terminology, understanding our own identities, exploring bias and oppression, and how to work to be an ally and advocate in this work.

ECHO: Navigating Challenging Conversations

This course addresses one of the most significant aspects of equity and diversity work: navigating challenging conversations. In each of our ongoing developmental paths around equity, diversity, and social justice, we will find ourselves in more situations that call for self-reflection, careful listening, nuanced language, and thoughtful questions. This course introduces skills in the following areas: noticing and naming our own triggers and activation, developing nuance in our understanding of our intentions, and developing empathy and active listening skills when we impact others.

ECHO: Addressing Implicit Bias and Microaggressions

The University of Minnesota is committed to increasing equity and diversity among its staff, faculty, and students. This includes supporting people of color, people who identify as women, people with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, and other identities across campus. It is essential to recognize and address the presence of implicit bias and microaggressions in our everyday lives. This course exposes learners to the concept of implicit bias and how it produces microaggressions that can impact the classroom, work, and social environments.

ECHO: Removing Barriers and Creating Access

Growing out of efforts to increase access for marginalized people with disabilities in social justice organizing, the term "collective access" refers to an approach toward inclusion that envisions a world where everyone's needs are understood as valid. Whether it's captioning, gender-neutral restrooms, rooms for silent prayer, curb cuts, or inclusive language, the work of equity and diversity involves paying attention to how we design our classrooms, labs, offices, residence halls, work, curricula, and events to be as welcoming and inclusive as possible. In this course, learners learn critical concepts of collective access and are given opportunities to assess the inclusivity of their own spaces, products, and communities.

IDENTITY-BASED COURSES:

ECHO: Ableism & Disability Justice

Ableism and discrimination towards people with disabilities and disabled communities play out on the individual, cultural, and institutional levels in the U.S. and worldwide. In this course, learners will be introduced to the foundational frames and the nuance involved in fighting ableism and working for disability justice.

ECHO: Challenging Classism

The impact of classism in our society leads to many barriers on our campus and in the broader community. Exploring classism is an essential part of understanding how wealth, status, and income are intertwined with social, cultural, and historical issues in the United States. Class and classism intersect with our identities and experiences, and challenging assumptions and biases about class is an essential step in creating positive change at the University.

ECHO: Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexuality (Formerly: 2SLGBTQIA+ Identities and Communities)

In discussions of “diversity,” not everyone recognizes that gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation are important points of cultural difference that merit recognition and voice. Individuals who are two-spirit, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, nonbinary, and/or queer often face isolation, silence, and invisibility. This course offers an opportunity for learners to be introduced to 2SLGBTQIA+ (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual+) identities and communities and identify strategies they can employ to create a more open and welcoming climate.

ECHO: Race, Racism, and White Supremacy

This course provides education about the concepts of race, racism, and white supremacy, historical and current facts, figures, and insight on resistance movements. This course also addresses the importance of talking about white privilege, white dominance, and white fragility as a way for white people to understand their own socialization and participation in systemic racism.

ECHO: Religious and Spiritual Identities

For many people, religion and spirituality are deeply personal and create values that offer a sense of purpose and community. However, religion may be seen as either impolite to talk about or as dangerously divisive in the public sphere. This course will explore how religious, spiritual, and humanist identities interact with other social identities and the power and privilege within historical and modern contexts. We will address the complexity of balancing religious and spiritual expression in the public sphere where church and state are separated.

ECHO: Understanding and Addressing Gender-Based Oppression

The media makes it sound gender equity has been achieved. What's the truth? In this interactive course, increase your knowledge of gender-based oppression and discuss how gender justice benefits everyone.