The University Senate is scheduled to vote on adopting the University’s diversity plan in a meeting today, but after three rounds of revisions and more than a year of feedback, the document has still drawn debate.
The administration stands firmly behind the newest draft, which removes some of the most contentious terms and quotas, but some faculty members accuse the plan of being discriminatory, too weak or too costly. Meanwhile, a vocal band of studentwants the plan to pass but doesn’t believe it takes enough action.
“There have been major changes in the draft at every stage,” University President Dave Frohnmayer said Tuesday.
The plan, he said, calls for action in the individual schools and departments to foster discussion and develop details, removing the “high levels of abstraction” present in the upper administration included in earlier drafts.
The plan states that each school, college, administrative unit and the ASUO Executive will develop an individual Strategic Action Plan (SAP) that will provide data, take action and show progress toward each plan’s stated goals. Timelines will vary among individual plans.
“I’ve rarely seen such effort go into something of this kind,” Frohnmayer said. “This is as much process as I’ve seen in my 35 years of association with the University of Oregon.”
The plan aims to include subjects of diversity in courses where applicable, and it lists many suggestions, rather than rules or guidelines, for students and faculty to foster diversity.
Frohnmayer said the plan includes “very little by way of central direction or edict.”
“This is not a monolithic document,” he said.
Another new part of the draft states that the University should give financial support for providing diversity training. The plan now also aims to promote faculty of color by improving retention, offering fair promotions and hiring job candidates’ partners while de-emphasizing “cluster hires” of “recognized minorities” and quotas.
The draft also now suggests that individual SAPs should focus on recruitment and retention of underrepresented graduate and undergraduate students by offering more scholarship money, advising, mentoring and involvement opportunities on campus. The draft states that the University should also reach out to underrepresented and underprivileged students from Oregon’s middle and high schools to encourage future enrollment. According to the plan, the University should interact with the local community and provide leadership and feedback for the SAPs.
Despite the changes to the newest draft, criticism has not abated.
Tuesday morning, State Representative Linda Flores decried the plan in a letter to Frohnmayer and other faculty.
Flores called the plan “an improvement over the previous draft,” but she questioned the use of funds.
“Was there consideration given to using the money that will be spent on the diversity plan to increase professor’s (sic) salaries? This may be a more effective way to recruit candidates of all ethnicities. When the legislature meets in 2007, I expect that the issue of the UO diversity plan will be one of the topics given serious consideration for review,” she wrote.
Frohnmayer said he has seen the letter but had not yet responded.
Faculty have raised similar concerns.
“This diversity plan will be ineffective and cost us quite a bit of money,” said Chris Ellis, a University economics professor. “It’s a very expensive political statement.”
Economics professor Bill Harbaugh said the plan doesn’t accomplish any real steps in promoting diversity or eliminating discrimination. Harbaugh said the administration intends to expand its power, when it could be helping underprivileged students move up from poverty.
“I thought the purpose of the plan was to do something,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a big mess.”
Chemistry professor Michael Kellman said people attempt to paint those opposed to the plan as opposed to diversity.
“If the University of Oregon is discriminating against people on the basis of their race then that should be heard in court,” Kellman said. “If anybody has been beaten up at the University, I’d like to hear about it.”
Kellman said the plan is about reverse discrimination and that “the University should recruit the best students it can and the best faculty.”
ASUO President-elect Jared Axelrod said he was fairly confident that plan will get passed as it stands.
Axelrod said if money gets tight, the University can use the $415 Million raised as part of Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives to help pay for implementing the plan.
Jael Anker-Lagos, co-chair of the Oregon Students of Color Coalition, criticized the plan as having no timeline or accountability and said it represented the administration’s lack of long-term commitment to diversity.
ASUO multicultural advocate Ty Schwoeffermann said voting for the adoption of the plan will support students even though the plan still has flaws.
“We’d like to vote for it first and fix it second. Enough people have really had their say in it and there really shouldn’t be that much talk at this point,” he said . “It’s gonna be tough to say whether faculty will support students.”
Assistant Vice Provost for Institutional Equity Emilio Hernandez Jr. said he hates to see the campus so polarized.
Hernandez said the current situation is reminiscent of the racial conflict of the early 1970s he experienced when he first studied at the University. This conflict has not necessarily been solved: Students filed 97 complaints of racial discrimination last year, he said.
“Just because you and I do not experience racism doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist on this campus,”
Hernandez said. “We’re not looking for dollars; we’re looking for a dialogue.”
The diversity plan does open dialogue, promoting understanding of different viewpoints and backgrounds, Hernandez said. That’s a good step, he said.
Diversity debate converges tonight
Daily Emerald
May 23, 2006
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