Hundreds of University of Wisconsin community members convened Thursday at an all-day conference to evaluate campus diversity and strategize ways to position UW as the country’s leader in campus diversity issues.

The “Seeding Inclusive Excellence” conference aimed to provide a learning environment for professional development, encouraging participants to discuss diversity within the context of UW’s framework and create a space for dialogue and interaction, according to Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate at UW.

The centerpiece of the conference was the idea of “inclusive excellence,” which posits a more diverse campus creates a more successful university and produces experienced, well-rounded students, according to Williams.

“It’s understanding that in our diversity, we become more excellent, and that we can’t be more excellent if we’re not actively embracing diversity at the big-picture level,” Williams said. “Beyond that, it’s asking the question how each person can be a part of helping us to achieve our strategic diversity goals.”

Forum participants specifically focused on the implementation of Chancellor Biddy Martin’s “call to action,” which defines diversity in broad terms including race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation and nationality, among others.

The call to action asks UW faculty, staff and students to incorporate a set of diversity objectives into all aspects of university life — from student organizations to campus committees, according to Williams.

UW’s diversity efforts over the past 20 years have been successful on some levels, Williams said, but Thursday’s forum launched what he said is a more focused effort that relies on a grassroots approach to campus diversity rather than a top-down approach.

Williams said 11 percent of this year’s incoming freshmen are underrepresented minorities, the largest percentage in UW’s history, though, he added UW still has a lot of work to do.

“We want to be known over the next five to seven years as the most preeminent university in the country with respect to issues of diversity,” Williams said. “That’s the goal. We want to be number one.”

Milwaukee resident Michelle Bryant, a conference participant, said she applauds the effort to diversify the UW campus.

Bryant, a graduate of UW-Milwaukee, said she thinks the entire UW System lacks diversity. She said she chose to send her son to Alabama State University — a historically black university — instead of a UW System school because of limited inclusion of minority students.

“The University either has to do a better job of bringing other groups onto campus, if not as students, then in terms of partnering with a university that has a larger number of kids of color,” Bryant said, suggesting that UW System schools should “manufacture opportunities” to increase interaction between diverse groups of students.

The ideas conference participants shared will be summarized and presented to all levels of leadership on campus, including the Associated Students of Madison, AIESEC and UW Provost Paul DeLuca, so that these groups can begin to work collaboratively with a “laser-like” focus on achieving inclusive excellence, Williams said.

“A part of it is how the various organizations take it, own it, make it a part of their work and then evolve it,” Williams said.