Hiring a chief diversity officer, establishing a permanent diversity and inclusion council and increasing the number of faculty and staff of color are among the 33 recommendations laid out in a report released Monday by the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion.

The report includes short-term and long-term recommendations that are divided into three categories. The workgroup suggests short-term recommendations be addressed by the end of the calendar year, while long-term recommendations are given a two-to-three year window. Several suggestions call for the hiring of additional staff or creation of new positions. Of the 33 recommendations, 11 involve hiring personnel or allocating financial resources to complete a given proposal.

Barry Wells, a co-chair of the workgroup, said in a press release that the recommendations “are highly aspirational,” but added that the university community must be bold in its actions to ensure the university is fully committed to creating a diverse and inclusive community.

Chancellor Kent Syverud announced the creation of the workgroup last September, though its members weren’t selected and announced until mid-October. From there, the group met as a whole once a week in the fall semester, and twice a week in the spring semester until March 11, said Francine D’Amico, the other co-chair of the workgroup. It met with stakeholders from across campus, held campus-wide forums and reviewed related documents drafted by other groups and organizations, such as THE General Body.

The first section of recommendations is also the largest and is titled “institutional commitment,” which refers to structural and policy issues that can shape the environment in which individuals and groups work and learn, according to the report.

Recommendations in this section include establishing a diversity and inclusion council, which would represent students, colleges and offices across campus and inform the work of the proposed chief diversity officer.

Other short-term recommendations include restoring staff positions at the Slutzker Center for International Services and the Native Student Program to previous levels, offering free tutoring for all undergraduates to support and retain underrepresented groups and establishing an Ombuds Office as a confidential resource for faculty, staff and students.

Long-term suggestions under the first category call for the hiring of a chief diversity officer to report to the chancellor and advance the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, as well as the increased hiring and retention of faculty and staff of color and other underrepresented groups.

“The goal should be for faculty and staff to reflect the diversity of our country,” the report states.

The second section is labeled “faculty, staff, and student education,” which focuses on the need for those groups to be better versed in issues of diversity and inclusion. Strengthening the STOP BIAS reporting system is one short-term recommendation, as is enhancing new student orientation to help forge relationships across racial, ethnic, religious and other lines.

Five long-term recommendations are listed in the second section, including the creation of an LGBT studies major, which would involve hiring additional faculty and allocating more funding for the program. Another suggestion is to create and require ongoing faculty and staff development on issues of race, class, ethnicity, gender, disability and more. Similarly, the group proposed developing a mandatory first-year forum or course in diversity and inclusion for all students.

The third and final section is “full access,” which addresses the need for all students, faculty and staff to feel welcome and included on campus. The report notes that this refers to physical access and the overarching idea of being “One University.” Suggestions in this section are largely connected to administrative measures, while the other two sections dealt with personnel and personal interactions.

For example, short-term recommendations include flying the Haudenosaunee flag wherever the American flag is flown on campus, acknowledging at major public events that SU sits on native land and instituting Indigenous Peoples Day as a campus initiative on the second Monday of October.

Long-term suggestions are also largely administrative measures, and include re-examining policies surrounding religious observance and ensuring major university events don’t conflict with major religious holidays. Another recommendation is developing a Physical Access Plan to remove physical barriers and increasing the annual budget for the Office for Campus Planning, Design and Construction for standalone accessibility improvements.

The report notes that while similar efforts on other college campuses to improve diversity and inclusion have failed, they typically didn’t take into account broader societal issues like implicit bias.

“We have, therefore, aimed our recommendations at addressing systemic issues in higher education, as well as those specific to our campus,” the report states.

Diversity and inclusion issues have persisted for years at SU, but recently came to the forefront of discussion in the fall of 2014 when women’s soccer player Hanna Strong was recorded saying racial and homophobic slurs in a video that went viral around campus.

In the aftermath of the video, students organized campus forums where those in attendance could air grievances or reflect on ways in which they felt marginalized. Those efforts culminated in the university-sponsored Express Yourself forum at Hendricks Chapel, a similar style event where members of the university community had time to share personal stories before breaking into group discussions.

Following the Express Yourself event, five workgroups were formed. Those groups met periodically, and at the end of the spring 2015 semester, group members and university leaders gathered to discuss each group’s findings and recommendations. The Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion considered the work of the Express Yourself groups in certain areas.

D’Amico, one of the co-chairs of the chancellor’s workgroup, said in an email that one challenge the group faced resulted from previous efforts to improve diversity and inclusion, many of which were “siloed” and wouldn’t reach the whole university. The group identified a need to better coordinate those efforts, she said.

To accomplish this, she said it will take an ongoing commitment and participation on all levels. She added that some recommendations can be completed within a few months, while others might require more detailed planning to implement.

“Change is a process, not a single event,” D’Amico said. “And this work needs to be carried forward on a continuing basis.”

Published on March 21, 2016 at 11:58 pm

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