The revised draft of the University’s controversial Five Year Diversity Plan is nearing completion and should be released during the next few weeks, said Charles Martinez, Interim Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity.
“We’re all very eager to have this draft come out,” said Martinez, a member of the new Diversity Executive Working Group that is making the revisions. “It will be this term. It will be in a matter of weeks.”
Faculty members criticized the original draft released in May by the Diversity Work Group, chaired by former Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Greg Vincent. The 21-page plan recommended ways to diversify the cultural climate in and around the University.
University President Dave Frohnmayer established the Diversity Executive Working Group in June to make revisions to the original plan. Some members of the Diversity Work Group returned, but the Diversity Executive Working Group also includes professors, faculty and students who are new to the process.
Between now and the plan’s rollout, the group is concerning itself with how to release the document in a way that allows for feedback and discussion, Martinez said. While the next draft is meant to be final, it will still be open to revisions.
“How we’ll integrate the larger-scale feedback? We’ll have to figure that out,” he said. “It’s really about timing. The work group and the president are equally concerned about releasing it where there is a lot of opportunity for feedback and discussion.”
Robin Holmes, director of the Counseling and Testing Center and a member of the Diversity Executive Working Group, said specifics of the plan are still under wraps, but the new plan is based on the original.
“In some ways there are many differences, and in others, not at all,” she said.
Martinez classified work on the plan as “a reiteration,” not “a replacement.”
Problems arose last spring with the release of the first plan, in part, because faculty didn’t think the plan was workable, Holmes said. They also didn’t have a lot of input to the project, she said.
“What it came down to was that folks didn’t feel they had any buy in the plan,” she said. “I wouldn’t say that it failed because it got a lot of people talking about it.”
Martinez said faculty were upset about lack of precision, particularly about the definitions of “cultural competency” and “diversity” in the document. He also said the original plan was meant to be a draft, and that wasn’t entirely clear.
“People thought it was more set in stone than it really was,” he said.
Martinez also said the first plan wasn’t a failure.
“Honestly there has been a profound sense of support for the underlying principles,” he said.
Two students are part of the Executive Diversity Working Group: ASUO President Adam Walsh and ASUO Multicultural Advocate Ty Schwoeffermann.
Walsh said he heard about the group and wanted to ensure students were part of the committee to provide input for the revisions.
“It’s a plan that’s really significant to students; it has students at its root,” he said. “It’s important we were present for that discussion.”
Martinez echoed Walsh’s sentiments.
“It’s important as a community to really stay engaged in this,” he said. “It’s about us, our staff, our faculty, our collective experience here. I really encourage our campus community to engage in discussion and participate.”
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