The Office of Equity and Inclusion was created to help cultivate an institutional vision and commitment to diversity while ensuring an equitable environment for all members of the UW Tacoma community. This means paying attention to policies and practices involving management, leadership, communication, resources, scholarship, and community. It includes focusing attention on the demographic composition of UW Tacoma and our surrounding community of the South Puget Sound to be certain that we know who are our students, faculty, staff, and community partners in order to better serve and work with all. In addition, we address our institutional systems as a means of better serving all faculty, students, and staff. Because UW Tacoma's mission clearly states that the University exists to "educate diverse learners and transform communities by expanding the boundaries of knowledge and discovery," equity, inclusion and diversity are linked to UW Tacoma's success and the academic achievement of UW Tacoma students.