A key tenet of the Strategic Plan for the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business is our commitment to continuing our work in diversity, equity and inclusion. We embrace diversity in its broadest sense, including, but not limited to, diversity of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic standing and intellectual viewpoint.

LSB Students

Race/Ethnicity LSB Count
 LSB %
 Elon Count Elon % LSB as % of Elon
American Indian 4 0.2% 8 0.1% 50.0%
Asian 41 2.3% 148 2.3% 27.7%
Black or African American 82 4.6% 363 5.7% 22.6%
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 1 0.1% 1 0.0% 100.0%
Hispanic/Latino 107 6.0% 405 6.4% 26.4%
Non-Resident Alien 53 3.0% 138 2.2% 38.4%
Two or more races 43 2.4% 198 3.1% 21.7%
Unknown 15 0.8% 68 1.1% 22.1%
White 1,432 80.5% 5,008 79.0% 28.6%
Total 1,778 100.00% 6,337 100.00% 28.1%

As of fall 2022

LSB Faculty & Staff

Race/Ethnicity Faculty/Staff Count
American Indian 0
Asian 13
Black or African American 6
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 0
Hispanic/Latino 1
Non-Resident Alien 6
Two or more races 2
Unknown 1
White 54
Total 83

As of fall 2022

Our international faculty and staff members come from countries including Armenia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Syria, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Educational Benchmarking, Inc. (EBI) Responses

All graduating LSB students take the EBI survey during their senior year. One of the EBI assessment factors focuses on multicultural issues and diversity.

The questions associated with “Factor 15 – Learning: Multicultural and Diversity” included:

  • To what degree did the business program enhance your ability to: Understand multicultural issues?
  • To what degree did the business program enhance your ability to: Work with diverse populations (i.e., cultural, ethnic, political)?
  • To what degree did the business program enhance your ability to: View issues from other people’s perspective?
Factor 15. Learning: Multicultural and Diversity Mean Std Dev N
2022 EBI Responses 4.81 1.65 97
2021 EBI Responses 4.75 n/a 108
2020 EBI Responses 5.07 1.50 160
2019 EBI Responses 4.85 1.39 163
2018 EBI Responses 4.84 1.60 134

Our assessment results show that while we continue to make progress, we cannot claim success in this area.

Strategic Initiatives

One of the four pillars of our latest Strategic Plan focuses on diversity and inclusion: “Support our mission by cultivating a diverse, inclusive, and vibrant community of students, faculty, and staff that promotes representation, values differences, and reflects our multicultural business environment.” Metrics to measure progress have been identified in the table below.

Action Items Potential Measures
Objective 1. Develop an organizational culture that embraces and values diversity by increasing the student, faculty and staff experiences of inclusion, equity and respect.
1. Launch new and reward current initiatives that leverage our skills to demonstrate our commitment to diversity and inclusion to the LSB, Elon and broader community.
  • Percentage of LSB faculty receiving diversity infusion grants
  • Number of new LSB initiatives related to diversity
2. Create and support programs to celebrate differences in the LSB, such as undergraduate research or service that advances diversity, speaker series including guests with relevant expertise or backgrounds, and diversity training for the LSB community.
  • Percentage of student UR projects, service learning projects, and LSB speakers relating to diversity
  • Percentage of LSB faculty and students involved in diversity training
Objective 2. Support the University’s mission of inclusion by boosting diversity in our faculty, staff and student body and leveraging the associated benefits.
1. Implement varied recruitment strategies to reach faculty, staff, and students from diverse backgrounds, ranging from engaging prospective undergraduates to attracting seasoned professionals to join the LSB community.
  • Percentage of LSB students from diverse backgrounds
  • Percentage of faculty and staff hires from diverse backgrounds
2. Develop programs to increase the retention of students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds, such as enhancing mentorship and promoting success stories of diverse groups.
  • Survey results on effectiveness and sufficiency of on-boarding programs for students, faculty and staff
  • Retention rates of student, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds
Objective 3. Integrate diversity and inclusion values into the LSB student experience by encouraging relevant curricular and co-curricular experiences.
1. Integrate diversity and inclusion content into the LSB curriculum to demonstrate the business case for diversity.
  • Percentage of LSB courses including diversity content
  • Number of LSB class assignments that address these ideas (cases, presentations, team-based projects, etc.)
2. Enhance proportion of LSB students engaged in diversity-related educational experiences, such as enrolling in diversity-related core courses or supplementing their LSB majors with diversity-related minors and majors from beyond the LSB.
  • Percentage of LSB students enrolling in diversity-themed courses
  • Percentage of LSB students with diversity related double-majors or minors
3. Increase depth and diversity of our students’ global experiences to ensure all LSB students graduate with a multicultural business perspective.
  • Percentage of students engaged in global study or semester long study abroad, with emphasis on countries with greater cultural differences with U.S.
  • Increased scholarship funding for LSB global study