DePaul University placed No. 12 in a national ranking of the 50 best workplaces for managers from diverse backgrounds issued by DiversityMBA Magazine this spring.

DePaul ranked highest among higher education institutions that participated in the survey and received special recognition for its retention strategies in the fourth annual ranking, titled "50 Out Front Companies for Diversity: Best Places for Diverse Managers To Work 2009."

The rankings are posted on DiversityMBA’s Web site, diversitymbamagazine.com, and will be featured in the April edition of the magazine. Based in Chicago, the national publication covers career issues and opportunities for minority professionals, including women and people of color with MBA degrees, and supports inclusive corporate policies.

The rankings were derived from extensive surveys completed by corporations, universities and other organizations as well as research conducted by magazine editors. The magazine was especially seeking organizations that showed "intentional strategies based on accountability, strong inclusion practices and ongoing evaluation of retention/recruitment activities that allow and encourage managers of diverse backgrounds to excel and develop into leadership roles," according to a DiversityMBA news release.

DePaul’s ranking was based primarily on its strategic plan, VISION twenty12, launched in 2006. One of the major goals of the plan is for DePaul to "be a model of diversity," and DePaul provided the magazine with details of the six-year plan to accomplish this, as well as information on multicultural programming, hiring practices, student recruitment and retention, employee evaluation and community-based service learning programs. Employee statistics, including the number of women and people of color in management positions of director and above, were provided, too.

DePaul’s historical commitment to promoting and fostering a diverse campus community also contributed to the ranking. This commitment includes the creation of the President’s Diversity Council to advise the president on diversity issues and to foster multicultural dialogue, collaboration and programming across disciplines and departments. DePaul also got high marks because its diversity leader is an executive officer who reports directly to the president and has the ear of senior leadership.

Other key initiatives that factored in the rankings included the development and adoption of faculty search guidelines and best practices to encourage inclusive faculty recruitment; the creation of a faculty exit interview process to ascertain why faculty may choose to leave the university; and the President’s Diversity Signature Series, an annual series of diversity celebrations.

"This ranking is an important measure of DePaul’s standing with its peers in regards to understanding and leveraging diversity in its many complex dimensions," said Elizabeth Ortiz, vice president for Institutional Diversity and Equity at DePaul. "DePaul continually reaches higher to achieve our diversity goals and ideals."

DePaul and the other ranked organizations will be honored during DiversityMBA Magazine’s Annual Awards Gala and Leadership Forum to be held Sept. 17 and 18 in Chicago.