Inclusive
Excellence
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Return to Fulbright Inclusive Excellence
Access and Success
Access and Success refers to objectives and strategies used to provide educational access and improve student success in Fulbright College. This includes recruitment and retention of our students, faculty, and staff.
Current Access and Success Initiatives:
- Student Scholarships: Fulbright College awarded more than 1,800 scholarships for the 2024-25 year, totaling more than $5 million in support for undergraduate and graduate students. Learn more about student scholarships.
- Sturgis Honors Fellowship: The Sturgis Fellowship in Fulbright College is the oldest of the most prestigious fellowships at the University of Arkansas. The award was established in 1985 through the generous philanthropy of the Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable and Educational Trust with an endowment of $2 million. The program’s success led to additional gifts in 1992 and 1998, bringing the total program endowment to $10 million. Learn more about the Sturgis Fellowship.
- Student Study Abroad Scholarships: Creating meaningful international experiences for students is a top priority in Fulbright College. These scholarships offset costs of tuition, materials, equipment, travel, or other aspects of students’ scholastic goals during study abroad. Learn more about Study Abroad Scholarships.
- Outreach and Recruitment: Fulbright College supports community outreach and recruitment throughout the Northwest Arkansas region and state, especially in support of the U of A’s land-grant mission to serve all of Arkansas.
- Dean’s Emergency Student Retention Fund: This emergency fund is intended to provide primarily immediate, one-time stopgap funding to help retain undergraduate students who would otherwise be unable to continue their education. Learn more about the Dean’s Emergency Student Retention Fund.
- High-Impact Practices: High-impact practices — or HIPs — are evidence-based teaching and learning practices that have demonstrated significant educational benefits for students who participate in them, especially in support of the U of A’s land-grant mission to provide access to public education for all Arkansas students. Learn more about High-Impact Practices.
- Success Coaches: Success Coaches, who are staff, graduate assistants, and faculty members in Fulbright College, foster a sense of belonging and provide academic coaching for incoming students by helping them focus on academic success strategies, navigate campus, utilize campus resources, locate communities on campus that best fit their interests and needs, advocate for themselves, and have a successful collegiate experience. Learn more about Success Coaches.
- Fulbright College Student Ambassadors: Fulbright College Student Ambassadors help provide a welcoming environment for all students, provide leadership and professional development opportunities for students. Learn more about Student Ambassadors.
Climate and Intergroup Relations
Climate and Intergroup Relations refers to the objectives and strategies that enable Fulbright College to create a climate that is supportive and respectful, that values differing perspectives and experiences, and encourages individuals to bring their whole selves to the learning and work environment.
Current Climate and Intergroup Relations Initiatives:
- Mentorship Programs: Fulbright College participates in U of A-wide new-faculty mentorship programs, including the Peer Mentoring Circles, and new-student mentorship programs, including first-generation student mentoring.
- Fulbright College Inclusive Excellence Council: Council members identify, recommend, support, and advise the Dean of Fulbright College and the Dean’s leadership team on how to make academic and research excellence inclusive for all in Fulbright College. The council reviews opportunities and challenges around access and equal opportunity for education, research, and student success. Learn more about the Inclusive Excellence College Council.
- Leadership and Professional Development Workshops: In the 2024-25 school year, the Inclusive Excellence team hosted 5 workshops for faculty and staff designed to support the U of A’s mission to be an employer of choice and to support an inclusive environment for all.
- The Dialogue Weekly Newsletter: More than 30 newsletters each academic year reach faculty, staff, students, and friends of Fulbright College to share Inclusive Excellence resources and opportunities happening in our college.
- Fulbright College Student Ambassadors: Fulbright College Student Ambassadors help provide a welcoming environment for all students, provide leadership and professional development opportunities for students.Learn more about Student Ambassadors.
- Fulbright College Inclusive Initiatives: As the result of a college-wide Inclusive Excellence goals survey with more than 1,000 responses, the Fulbright College Inclusive Excellence team will develop Inclusive Initiatives to support the college’s vision and efforts in supporting an inclusive environment for all faculty, staff, and students. Learn more about Inclusive Initiatives.
- Fulbright Learning Community: Created in 2025, the Fulbright Learning Community is a faculty development initiative designed to strengthen teaching effectiveness, encourage collaborative engagement, and promote student success within the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.
- Employee Resource Groups and Alumni Society: Fulbright College supports the U of A’s Employee Resource Groups and Alumni Societies, which aim to ensure the U of A is an employer of choice and a land-grant institution that is welcoming to all.
Education and Scholarship
Education and Scholarship refers to strategies and objectives in Fulbright College related to classrooms, curricula and pedagogies, programs, and processes that promote intercultural awareness and competence and inclusive teaching.
Current Education and Scholarship Initiatives:
- Leadership and Professional Development Workshops: In the 2024-25 school year, the Inclusive Excellence team hosted 5 workshops for faculty and staff designed to support the U of A’s mission to be an employer of choice and to support an inclusive environment for all.
- Fulbright College Student Ambassador Program: Fulbright College Student Ambassadors help provide a welcoming environment for all students, provide leadership and professional development opportunities for students. Learn more about Student Ambassadors.
- Fulbright College Salon Discussions: Discussions and special events take place throughout the school year with faculty, staff, and students from across Fulbright College and the U of A.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure refers to objectives and strategies that create a foundational, institutionalized approach to inclusive excellence across research, teaching, service, and student success in Fulbright College.
Current Infrastructure Initiatives:
- Inclusive Excellence College Council: Council members identify, recommend, support, and advise the Dean of Fulbright College and the Dean’s leadership team on how to make academic and research excellence inclusive for all in Fulbright College. The council reviews opportunities and challenges around access and equal opportunity for education, research, and student success. Learn more about the Inclusive Excellence College Council.
- Inclusive Excellence Goals Survey: During the 2022-23 school year, the Inclusive Excellence team conducted a goals survey to understand Fulbright College’s vision for Inclusive Excellence, which resulted in 1,000+ survey responses with input on the college’s Inclusive Excellence goals and vision. Learn more about the goals survey.
Community Engagment and Outreach
Community Outreach and Engagement refers to the objectives and strategies that Fulbright College promotes to support a stronger community and to provide educational access for all through community partnerships, social well-being, and evidence-based research.
Current Community Outreach and Engagement Initiatives:
- Recruitment: Fulbright College actively participates in student recruitment initiatives. For example, we have initiatives that uplift STEAM education in less well represented geographical locations.
- Outreach: Fulbright College actively participates in community outreach throughout the Northwest Arkansas region and state with both financial and programming support to provide college access information, scholarships, and the like to all prospective students including first generation and lower socioeconomic communities.
- Regional Partnerships: Fulbright College collaborates with community organizations and corporate partners in Northwest Arkansas, including, for example, the Northwest Arkansas Council and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, to ensure Fulbright College and the U of A serve as a leader in economic, arts, and community development and to ensure our region remains inclusive and welcoming for all.
- Arkansas-based Research: Fulbright College faculty engage in research opportunities throughout the state that support the U of A’s land-grant mission and support the Arkansas economic and community development, including, for example, an Arkansas broadband internet access project.
