The University is on track to become a more diverse place in the coming years, several administrators and professors said Thursday.
Each school, college, administrative unit and the ASUO Executive has to develop its own Strategic Action Plan aimed at fostering underrepresented groups, according to the University’s diversity plan adopted last week. Some have a head start, while others have yet to get started.
Charles Martinez, vice provost for institutional equity and diversity, said the University-wide plan allows for each different unit to design a strategy catered to its own students and faculty. This allows flexibility, Martinez said.
He said the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity has remained engaged in the planning process for some time, but the plan does not make the office’s inclusion necessary. The OIED is a resource for the individual planners, providing input when requested, but does not write the plans and does not make any final decisions on their implementation.
“We don’t have discretion,” Martinez said.
The office will review the plans and receive activity reports yearly and progress reports every five years, the university-wide plan states.
Martinez said some units already have committees in place to create their plans. He has seen plans from the Division of Student Affairs and the School of Journalism and Communication, he said, but he hasn’t seen any plans from anywhere else.
Student Affairs, the administrative division comprising ten departments including the Office of Admissions and University Housing, started developing its plan in January, Dean of Students Robin Holmes said – months before the University plan was completed. A committee of two to three people from each of the
division’s departments has worked to develop a course of action that addresses issues in the department but also to improve the climate on campus, she said.
Holmes said the division conducted a survey of about 500 of their
employees, 50 percent of whom responded. The survey, Holmes said, added to the committee’s understanding of the issue and helped them to develop the plan.
“It helped shape our work,” Holmes said.
Holmes said the division wanted to release the plan by the end of spring term, but instead will have it completed by the end of June.
On October 21, 2005, the journalism school adopted a diversity policy that contains wording similar to that included in the University’s plan.
“I don’t know that we will be making any changes,” said Tim Gleason, journalism school dean. “We think it’s a very workable plan.”
He said the policy is compatible with the University-wide plan, but it remains unique to journalism.
“What we do in journalism will not be the same as what they do in law,” Gleason said.
Susan Gary, associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Law, said the school had a number of diversity-related programs for a number of years, and is currently in the process of creating a Strategic Action Plan committee. She said she does not know whether the school has had a specific plan, but that the faculty is excited to create one.
“We want to do more,” Gary said.
Assistant professors of law Judd Sneirson and Robert Illig both said the issue may be addressed at a faculty meeting today.
“We came to law school to teach because we care about things like justice and equity,” Illig said.
James Bean, dean of the Lundquist College of Business, said it has participated in several programs aimed at promoting understanding and building diversity, including bringing middle school students from disadvantaged backgrounds to the University over the summer to get a glimpse into the world of higher education. He said the school understands the importance of diversity and aims to start developing a Strategic Action Plan.
“The whole objective,” Bean said, “is excellence.”
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