Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Gregory Vincent hosted the fourth of five “Community Conversations” on Tuesday.
The meetings are designed to allow members of the faculty, student body, classified staff and the community to give their input on the Diversity Action Plan, a multi-faceted proposal intended to increase diversity on campus. The plan has several other goals, including increasing cultural competency and strengthening community relations.
Tuesday’s meeting was sparsely attended and ended a half hour early. After Vincent presented the five points of the plan, he opened up the meeting for comment, but his requests for input were met by deadening silence.
“We’re scheduled until 1 p.m.,” he said when the meeting seemed to stagnate. “But we can adjourn whenever we’re all talked out.”
Timothy McMahon, who works with the Teaching Effectiveness Program, attended the meeting and said few people attended because Vincent has hosted similar meetings before.
Steve Pickett, director of Disability Services, said in the meeting that the University lags in the number of minority students who are disabled.
“We don’t see that many minority students with disabilities,” he
said. “They’re dealing with a
double stigma.”
Pickett added that this “double stigma” often makes parents hesitant to send their children to the University.
Later in the meeting, McMahon said that tokenization is still a problem for minority students on campus. He said he’s heard complaints of
professors singling out students based solely on their race.
“We still have professors asking ‘What do African-Americans think about the war in Iraq?’” he said.
Vincent said the preliminary set of recommendations will be completed by the end of the term so that faculty, students and community members will have the opportunity to review and comment on them in the spring. He added that the recommendations will be finalized by the end of spring term and ready for implementation in fall term 2005.
“We’ll have it done by the end of spring quarter,” he said. “You can count on it.”
The last “Community Conversation” will be held Wednesday, Jan. 26 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. in the EMU
Walnut Room.
In Brief: ‘Community Conversation’ draws little response
Daily Emerald
January 19, 2005
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