The Mankato State College Minority Group Studies Center began in 1970 with Michael Fagin as its first director. The Center was created as a result of a 1969 Black Task Force report which called for a more inclusive campus that included more African American faculty and students. Professor George Ayers recruited Fagin to lead the Minority Group Studies Center. The Center served four main functions on campus: a service facility for minority groups; assist in developing and enriching courses; provide community education; a resource facility in minority studies.

The Minority Group Studies Center began offering courses in 1972 under the purview of the School of Arts and Sciences and developed a minor program in Afro-American Studies in 1973. By 1975, they offered a Bachelor’s degree in Minority and Ethnic Studies and minors in Afro-American Studies and Native American Studies. They were one of the founding Departments of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in 1978. In 1988 they added a third minor degree in Minority and Ethnic Studies.

In 1991 the Center was divided into the Department of Race and Ethnic Studies, Ethnic Service Center, and the Cultural Diversity Program. In 2003 the Cultural Diversity Program became the Office of Institutional Diversity. In 2020 it became the division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.