UConn’s Supplier Diversity Program (USDP) was recently mentioned in the initial draft of the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill’s “Proposed Strategic Plan for the UNC System to Increase Utilization of Historically Underutilized Businesses”.  This proposal highlighted UNC’S research results taken from interviews of different institutions, with the following key elements being attributed to UConn and others as examples of best practices:

• Provide explicit, enthusiastic, and evergreen top-down support
• Dedicate staffing and resources to supplier diversity
• Empower university purchasers as economic changemakers
• Celebrate successes