For more than two years, economics professor Bill Harbaugh has sent a long series of questions toward University administrators, saying he’s tried to maintain an open dialogue with them about diversity. But on June 11, the conversation changed.
After posing dozens of questions via e-mail and filing about 20 public records requests, Harbaugh received a letter from General Counsel Melinda Grier saying that his questions would no longer be answered by the University.
Most of Harbaugh’s questions have centered around the University’s approach to diversity. As the University begins its second academic year since the Five-Year Diversity Plan gained approval in May 2006, that subject has figured prominently into campus discussions. And Harbaugh has been there every step of the way.
“I think the issue of diversity is an important one,” he said. “I think it’s crucial they do a good job with it.”
But Harbaugh’s concerns over the plan’s drafting and implementation haven’t always been well-received. He’s continuously criticized the University for not being open enough about how the process has worked, and last spring claimed that the Underrepresented Minority Recruitment Program – enacted last year as part of the Diversity Plan – was illegal based on Fourteenth Amendment grounds. He said the program illegally compensates faculty differently based on race. University President Dave Frohnmayer then responded by pointing out that the program awards funds to different departments, not individual faculty.
Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Charles Martinez said he respects all differences of opinion, but they don’t all represent the campus community as a whole. The final version of the Diversity Plan was approved convincingly by the University Senate in 2006, and that’s where Martinez said the University found compromise.
“I think there is a need to respect the voices of dissent, but there’s also a need to be clearer where the common ground is and move forward anyway. And there is tension in that,” Martinez said.
In all, Harbaugh said his many diversity-related questions – often repeated – have been met with little response. But Grier’s letter in June only made him more interested.
“It’s made me far more curious about what’s going on,” Harbaugh said. “They just raised the ante.”
Grier declined to comment further on the matter, but indicated in the letter that Harbaugh had asked many of the same questions repeatedly, and more than 25 in the previous month alone.
“It does not appear productive to continue the dialogue regarding your disagreement with the University’s approach to increasing diversity,” Grier wrote. “Thus, I believe we must agree to disagree. Rather than engage in an unproductive exchange of messages, I and other administrators including the President, Provost, Associate Vice President for Institutional Diversity, Affirmative Action Officer will no longer reply to your questions.”
Grier also noted in the letter that the University would continue to provide public documents to Harbaugh, as required by Oregon law. Harbaugh has since posted the letter on his Web site and on the door of his PLC office.
“When I got the letter, I thought it was hilarious,” Harbaugh said. “Then the more I thought about it, the sadder I thought it was that they felt the need to excommunicate me.”
While Martinez said he didn’t necessarily agree with an approach of not talking or asking questions, he said the University has a responsibility to move forward with what has already been decided. Community involvement has been emphasized from the beginning, he said.
“I think it’s been essential, probably at every phase of the process,” Martinez said.
And dissent has come from all sides, he added. While some have said, like Harbaugh, that the University hasn’t been transparent enough or its approach to diversity is too strong, Martinez said he’s heard from others that the plan is too safe and doesn’t push hard enough.
Architecture professor Peter Keyes witnessed much of that debate as University senate president during the 2005-06 year. He said the University did a reasonably good job of including community involvement while creating second and third drafts and eventually passing the plan.
“I think (there was) quite a bit in the plan that was passed that year,” Keyes said. “I think there was a lesson learned the previous year, when a plan was passed in a complete cone of silence.”
Martinez acknowledged that the Diversity Plan’s first draft, which was released in May 2005 under Martinez’s predecessor, Greg Vincent, didn’t include a lot of faculty input. And that’s partly what set off the heated debate leading into Martinez’s tenure the next year, he said.
And that’s the debate Harbaugh has been involved in since. Among the questions he’s asked the University directly include why the University’s Affirmative Action Plan wasn’t developed and posted sooner, and why it was backdated, as Harbaugh believes, meaning it was signed after it was supposed to take effect. He said he’s also asked why payment records relating to the Underrepresented Minority Recruitment Plan haven’t been made public.
“Many of the answers I’ve gotten – I have gotten some answers – they’re often evasive, so I’ve been asking follow-up questions,” Harbaugh said.
In an e-mail, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Director Penny Daugherty said there hasn’t been any effort to include the Affirmative Action Plan as part of the Diversity Plan because the two are separate programs. The University’s status as a federal contractor requires the implementation of the Affirmative Action Plan, but the Diversity Plan is voluntary, she said.
“While the two efforts share a common interest in diversity, they are very separate undertakings,” Daugherty said.
As for the backdating question, Daugherty said the concern is a misunderstanding. Each year’s plan is based on a snapshot of data from the previous year, meaning the 2007 plan is based on an analysis of data from fall 2006, she said.
Martinez didn’t comment directly on those questions, but said the focus of the diversity debate now should be on how the plan is implemented within the University’s different departments. As part of the Diversity Plan, which is to be revised every five years, each school was charged with developing its own Strategic Action Plan.
Harbaugh said he’s very pleased with what his own College of Arts and Sciences has done in that regard, hosting an annual summer camp designed to encourage minority and low-income students to attend college. The program is a response to the Diversity Plan, and one that Harbaugh strongly supports.
“I think the real issue is fill the pipeline,” he said. “That’s what the University ought to be focusing on – getting more minorities, more low-income people into college.”
But Harbaugh and Martinez both acknowledge that the diversity debate is far from over. Both also share the same goals of increasing diversity at the University.
Keyes said the University has significantly improved its openness in diversity issues over the years, but it could still use more improvement. And while he doesn’t necessarily agree with Harbaugh’s strong approach to entering that discussion, Keyes said his goals are valid.
“I think Bill Harbaugh and a couple of other people are being progressive – and rightfully so – saying, well, ‘What is going on?’” he said. “I think it’s very healthy to have a transparent understanding with what’s going on with any issue.”
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