Faculty Listening Session
November 2012
Questions Posed and Comments Made by U of M-Twin Cities Faculty in Advance of and During the Diversity Listening Session with President Eric Kaler and Provost Karen Hanson
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Recruitment and Retention My department recently made a diversity hire but was unable to retain this scholar because of the ColorBlocks–Horizontal
inability to make a partner hire (the partner, also an academic scholar, was also a person of color Irregular shapes in multiple with a tenure-track offer at a peer institution). University-wide diversity policies would seem to colors from the O require university-level (rather than departmental-level) support. What kind of institutional support addAre movement and energy to a given is the university willing to contribute to seeking out and retaining non-white palette faculty? partner hires included?
Recruiting exceptional faculty of color can be done through a strong postdoctoral fellows program only if departments can support a fellow to a tenure track and tenured position within the department. Should the U invest in creating a continuous pathway for postdocs?
How can we get more faculty to engage with resources for underrepresented students (e.g., ally training with the GLBTA center)?
What are some of the strategies that work to recruit, develop and retain diverse faculty?
How might public engagement be utilized as a way to attract and retain diverse faculty and students?
A similar point can be made for any "target of opportunity." The prevailing view is that going after a target of opportunity today will mean losing a position later on (so that the net gain is zero). In my field, there are so few women that a female is unlikely to be the "top candidate" on any ranked list (and if she were, it would be almost impossible for U of M to win the hiring sweepstakes with better institutions). Nonetheless, the third or fourth candidate on a list might also be outstanding. The reason people are reluctant to skip over three candidates involves everything from legal issues (manageable, I believe) to the politics of scarcity. The latter is the real problem.
1. Are there continuing efforts to recruit capable faculty and students? 2. Are there supports to encourage faculty development and mentorship? 3. What efforts are being made to encourage directors, chairpersons, and deans to support all faculty of color?
What strategies and methods is the university using to increase the identification and hiring of minority faculty and women outside of the college of science and engineering? What leadership and mentorship opportunities are available to faculty of color in the President's Office to enhance the career growth and understanding of other opportunities at the university for faculty outside of research and teaching?
How do we best insure that our faculty more closely represents the diversity of our community?
How willing are you to set aside lines for diversity hiring?
I spoke with the new (reasonably new) Program Director here, and she stated that one thing that needs to happen to attract and keep a more diverse faculty and student body is to do more to facilitate their integration into the university. She stated that Minnesota, including the university, is not very accepting of other cultures, and is not willing to help them, even on very minor things. As an example, she said when she arrived for her first day on campus, she found her key taped to the office door, with a note from the person who put it there that she would not be in that day and
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she'd see her tomorrow. Other faculty who are not originally from Minnesota, even those from as close as Wisconsin agree that this is not a welcoming culture, and if you add a difference in ethnicity to the mix, the barriers for those people are almost insurmountable. Getting people to understand a culture of service, and helping new faculty and students find the information they need instead of just telling them "It's on the web. You can look it up," will help. So my question would be, what can we do to get the Minnesotans who work here to be less cold, more accepting of not only other races, but other cultures, even if that means a Wisconsin Packers fan?
So, the university attracts faculty of color and they may stay through their tenure process, but what are the plans to entice them to stay after the university has invested in their human capital? I don't feel there is a connection amongst faculty of color and students specifically within the ethnic and racial groups to build a sense of community on campus. We tend not to know each other and I've been here a while.
What more can be done to recruit more diverse faculty, especially to ensure that search committees do a better job of identifying diverse candidates and evaluating them fairly? The commitment has to be more than just a pro forma effort to include names of diverse candidates.
What practices did they employ at their institutions that were effective at recruiting diverse faculty members?
Lack of females holding leadership roles in the STEM fields/College of Science and Engineering. More senior hires should be female and a pipeline must be ensured. If this means UMN must look externally for women to fill these roles then so be it.
Concerns around retention issues; spousal connections; and vision for commitment of real resources for spousal retention. There is a need to re-enhance opportunities for spousal positions. A zero-sum equation for Spousal hires? Is it realistic to imagine that it will not impact lines given to departments? Also, where is University really committed to retaining FOC? University needs to leverage relationships with other local Universities. 1. Sometimes it just won't work. 2. Key to diversifying is to be more open in how we design positions.
At her former institution it was harder, not knowing phases, how to secure your position, how to consider other positions (once you get tenure,) or how to you manage your career. She believes that HR is well defined for P&A, but not clear for faculty (if one was in a company they would go back to HR to get more info. She did sit on the Women's Faculty Cabinet, which gave her good insight but information is not easily accessible. This also applies to students of color who are trying to be a part of a process that is not defined and who do not have a point of contact. She believes It's a design process and the brand is "we want you to be successful based on who you are and what you want". Mentioned tenure support, mentorship, socializing, options, career navigation, leadership opportunities, visual mapping, information accessibility and a better HR process for faculty.
Comments that the University has a sub-optimal recruitment strategy for faculty that seems to be 'put out a call and hope that a small number of diverse faculty will apply.’ He proposes that the University purposely has more programs in all disciplines for better recruitment such as having booths at events and conferences that target diverse graduate students as well as at events and conferences of or for diversity societies (society of Hispanic professional engineers conference). He notes that Georgia Tech's Mechanical Engineering Dept. built a strongly diverse program in 5 yrs. Adds that when representing the University at conferences they are recruiting at all levels and we need to see it as opportunity that it is.
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What programs does the U have in place to make the climate more welcoming for diverse faculty and students?
What are the three primary strategies you think are most effective for creating an environment supportive of diversity at a large institution of this nature?
How is the U promoting diversity dialogues and interactions across campus-ones that take advantage of existing diversity and engage people across campus around diversity issues?
How do we accurately assess the perception of non-diverse faculty regarding the importance of improving the climate for diverse faculty? How do we effectively communicate to non-diverse faculty and students the criticalness of a healthy climate for diverse faculty and students?
How will we address invisible racism?
What are some very specific ways we can make the campus a safe and welcoming place for all? How can we change our Minnesota-centric culture?
What UMN twin cities units (colleges, schools, and/or departments) have developed unique approaches, successful programs and/or lasting legacies of faculty and student diversity? How may these programs and their leaders serve as effective models for other units?
There are contrasting philosophies (Western vs. non-Western ways of knowing). We need to look at how this impacts what we do and how we do it.
A faculty member has heard that "this U is not for YOU". The question tied to diversity planning; we don't know that and there have not been incentives for these to be created. In a college as large as CLA, it needs to happen at the unit/dept. level, not just college level with accountable/inspirational goals & strategies; community outreach for both grad and undergrad. Also, not just for faculty, but curriculum too.
A faculty member has questions about processes and not enough action. She knows that you can have creativity without diversity, but does the University see diversity as inherently valuable or that we can make it valuable. The distinction is critical in seeing how we can be successful. If it is inherently valuable, how to we make that case to faculty. Need to establish a brand for which there is a lot of resources but its not easy to get there. The challenge across the University is that we spend a lot of time 'discussing' instead of 'doing'. The individual would like us to move forward on the action/implementation part and spend less on the planning/discussing part. Quotes Colin Powell who said, "you really only need 60% of the information to do well and the rest can be corrected as you go.** What would happen is a roadmap (e.g. how do you get a job here; see how the University works before you come; and etc.). The person came here after a colleague spent 2 years recruiting and encouraging the faculty member. The colleague kept checking in with her. She feels she learned enough over these 2 years before she came. She can see the benefit of this and more faculty would mean larger voices for recruitment. Spoke also on tenure support, mentorship, socializing, career navigation, information accessibility, visual mapping, leadership opportunities, and an overall better HR process for faculty.
Comments that she has heard much about 'inside and outside' the University. Believes it is about respect and it comes in many forms. Also, if we are going to work with community partners we must recognize and validate the expertise of/within these community.
Here is my top comment and question related to gender diversity: Having been a faculty member at the U of M for well over 20 years, I have long noticed significant disparities in the internal service expectations and support for female vs. male faculty members. Women faculty in general do
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significantly more internal service and do it with less support, which, while extremely important and essential to the effective functioning of the U and service to our students, works to the disadvantage of their own promotion, tenure, merit and salary. It displaces time spent on research and grant seeking, elements that are more highly valued based on present systems of merit and promotion. I see three possible solutions to this. One would be to change the culture of the university and administration at all levels so that service expectations are enacted that are more equitable between men and women. The second would be to ensure that faculty who step up to do these important internal service tasks are better supported with human and financial resources to do them more efficiently, so that the impact on their own research agendas is less onerous. The third would be to modify the tenure code and other merit and salary standards to place greater value on excellence in internal service in these incentive considerations.
What, if any, steps would the President and SVPs take in addressing these gender disparities related to internal service expectations, performance, and the associated reward structures?
What is being done to sustain the merit review system and award faculty what they deserve after they have received outstanding merit reviews? Between 2008, 2009, and 2010, I published four books and have not received merit raises from the college. I understand the salary freeze but, the fact remains, I have not been paid for my achievements in recent years. This is unacceptable.
While we have come a long way to address pay inequities among female faculty, there is evidence that some inequity exists among female professors relative to their male counterparts. Will there be any attempt to address this disparity from a University perspective?
Faculty of diverse background, experience additional work load (that we do with pressure) when it comes to initiatives to promote diversity and serve as role models. This effort does not seem to count towards our service to our academic units. One is faced with a tough decision: put less effort in to our teaching and research or withdrawing from diversity related activities. Do the President or SVPs have specific plans to address this issue?
Class sizes are increasing and so too are the demands placed on faculty to continue provide a value-added education, publish original high-quality research, and address concerns and problems of relevance to society. I'm curious as to how the university plans to demonstrate its commitment to a diverse faculty under such competing pressures.
Why doesn't the U of M require every academic unit (and every college) to have a goal-driven diversity plan focused on curriculum, student community and outreach? My unit established a diversity committee as a standing faculty committee in our constitution. I'm sure there must be others, but I don't know that we've ever shared best practices or that the senior leadership of this university has ever held deans truly accountable for meeting diversity goals in any way beyond the most rudimentary head counting.
Class differentials among faculty: Not just in the divides between scientists, business, professional degree program faculty and liberal arts faculty, but between and among two-faculty couples (often dominating single departments) versus faculty, particularly single parents, who often live in a very different reality.
A major obstacle to women faculty continues to be an inadequate, ad hoc approach to maternity leave. Often, women are put in the position of petitioning (or begging) for arrangements that will allow them to take the leave to which we are entitled because the six weeks allowed by FMLA do not cover a teaching replacement for the department. The childcare center is outstanding, but the waiting list is staggering and the cost is onerous to those not in the highest of salary range. What changes would you make to help women with respect to these two major issues?
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How do you change the faculty culture to be more accepting of diversity and be committed to diversity?
How can we assure the policies created on the University campus are designed to reduce institutional racism?
Following up on the dialogue around a need to engage in relationship building and trust building, a faculty members states that this all takes time. In addressing the question on how can we do this centrally, she says (1) time clock regarding the promotion and tenure process and peer reviewing of disciplinary journals vs. time enough to do all needed and asked; the question of time has great importance, especially of places like UROC (2) The broader category of impact. Publication is one way, but a need to include other ways of having an impact (e.g. community engagement in the community in which one works). Notes that if each scholar is to have to start at ground zero, none will finish Ph.D.. (3) Indirect cost recovery. If and when administrators see it as too low, what can we do to still support research? Not suggesting extending clock; but building bridges where trust of work can be done. Also when we went through the strategic planning process, the committee on Equity, Access and Diversity (EAD) tracked all of this with a perspective of equity, access and diversity.
Can the University be more aggressive and creative in addressing the spousal/partner employment needs for hiring and retaining faculty in underrepresented groups? The University's spousal/partner hiring policies are weak across the board, but they are especially damaging with respect to prospects for building a diverse faculty.
How willing are you to set aside lines for spousal hiring when it will increase the diversity of the faculty?
With regards to the "two-body" problem, it appears this institution has adopted a policy (or lack of policy) that make spousal hires particularly difficult, except possibly when they are both in the same department. In order to make this work, people really have to know that being asked to consider a spousal hire is not a "zero sum game." How do we make sure that resources and decision-making authority exist so that these decisions can be made expeditiously?
How can the University support Colleges/Departments efforts to promote equity and diversity? For example, could funding be provided for each College to have a Director of Equity and Diversity, someone who leads changes in areas ranging from the curriculum to hiring and student affairs?
Is there the possibility of creating a grant fund specifically allocated for diversity projects within departments?
Regarding building partnerships and resources, the in the schools she partners with there are not any nor can teachers access funds to reimburse them for substitutes or transportation to be able to bring students to the University (they cannot use public transportation either).
What is your vision for the ethnic studies departments in the near and long-term future?
What role do you see these units playing in CLA and in the University as a whole?
Wouldn't it help reduce the marginalization of minority and ethnic studies if, rather than being concentrated in small stand-alone units, they were fully integrated into the major disciplines? The disciplinary departments can be mandated to incorporate the study and teaching of underrepresented populations into their responsibilities. Reducing marginalization could help with hiring and retention.
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Units on campus that constitute essential locations for diversity and equity work (such as Ethnic Studies units and centers such as the IHRC) have been under siege in the past several years as administrators have worked to address budgetary challenges, diverting time and energy away from core mission activities. Such units are crucial to the University's diversity and equity missions on campus as well as beyond campus. They provide essential connections to diverse communities locally and in the region and their faculty and staff help lead the research agendas of national and international scholarly communities concerned with issues of diversity and equity. What steps with Central Administration take to protect the autonomy and integrity of these units in the context of fiscal constraints facing the University?
Asks about CLA's position on/attempt to merge all the ethnic studies departments and also asks what is the President's vision for making diversity part of a plan in the future?
In follow up to previous comments and questions, she adds that the ethnic studies department do a lot of, if not the most, diversity work at the University and to consider, threaten or follow through on merging these departments sends a powerful message to the entire University as well as the external community.
The faculty member's college/unit has 40% from outside of the US and 30% from inside the US. Would like to challenge the University to take down the barriers of diversity between international and domestic students/faculty. Diversity is inherently valuable or something that we wish to make inherently valuable. Another challenge is that there is a need to create and support "community" for diverse students in an effort to recruit and retain them as well as ensure the completion of their Ph.D. He notes that in his 35 years in the Geography Department there have only been three African American Ph.D. students. Also talked about support for OED.
Problem: Societal problems in the 21st century related to globalization and modernization have been creating tensions, conflicts and wars. These problems are directly related to diversity of language, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, race and culture. The term diversity includes biological diversity involving our natural world, e.g. global warming, extinction of species, habitat loss, and other ecological conditions that support our existence. Therefore, there is an urgent need to devise resolutions for healthy and peaceful co-existence through a deeper understanding of diversity. Solution: Education --Undergraduate major, minor, diplomas and certificates. To address these issues we need educational programs that promote understanding of all-inclusive diversity, cultural as well as biological, through respect and appreciation for the unique contributions they make. Educational programs will produce young ethical leaders who will create civil societies for healthy and peaceful co-existence. Proposal for Diversity Education; Ethics Education; and Peace Education: An all-inclusive, interdisciplinary, & multidisciplinary pedagogy.
Resolutions to these problems at the university level are being addressed at the avant-garde student-faculty organization named Diversity-Ethics-Peace. This organization has published research in three disciplinary tracks: Avatar: Heavenly Descent, 2012; The Unified Universe, 2011; Biodiversity and Systems of Ethics, 2010; Pluralism and Symbiotic Relationships, 2009-- published in the Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations (a peer reviewed journal, Melbourne, Australia); while Diverse Linguistic Structures: Diverse World-Views in The Bulletin of Transylvania University of Brasov (Romania), 2008; and Peaceful Coexistence through Diversitypublished in The Proceedings of the International Congress of Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS), Ankara, Turkey, 2008.
One faculty member spends a lot of time outside of the university, dealing with issues in the community and UMORE. He notes that he hears more about UMORE than UROC. He sees interaction with external communities as a way of increasing diverse research.
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One faculty member stated this dialogue is part of larger conversation that we need at the University about connecting engagement and research. There is a need to understand that you are engaging in discovering (research) from the moment that you start a partnership. How do we fund this?
The proposed academic program's (Diversity-Ethics-Peace) foundational/core curriculum has been developed and taught with direction and support from the University of Minnesota's Honors Program: (1) Philosophies of Ethics & Peace, 2012; (2) Ethics of Diversity, 2011; (3) Aesthetics of Diversity, 2010; (4) Communication Between Cultures 2010; (5) Zen of Peace, 2009; (6) Understanding Diversity: A Universal Perspective, 2009; and (7) You are You: Philosophy of Diversity & Difference, 2007. The rest of the proposed inter and multi-disciplinary program uses curricula already existing in various departments and schools and adds little additional cost to the University. And, the program has great potential to create opportunities for public outreach, to engage fellows/interns with the NGO's, health professionals, and other business communities.
How does the U define diversity?
I would like to ask that the senior leadership provide some framework for how we consider the term "diverse," as in the context of "diverse faculty" or "diverse students." This is often used as a code word for all those who are not in the dominant role (so people of color, women, people with disabilities, etc.). This establishes that those in the dominant roles are "normal" and all others are positioned in relation to those people. It also obscures the differences and uniqueness among a large group with a wide range of different experiences and perspectives. I would ask that as we move forward in setting our agenda, the leadership focuses on how our language replicates the very systems we say we want to challenge. I would very much like to hear comments and strategic thinking on this.
Have you considered replacing the term "faculty of color" or "students of color"? In my opinion, it reflects an outdated diversity model of "white and colored people", and it can be potentially discriminatory
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Might we invest in building robust pipelines and affiliations with HBUs to provide early mentoring r Blocks–Horizontal for prospective graduate students and future faculty? And undergraduate student exchanges, joint Irregular shapes in multiple color projects and summer programs?
palette add movement and ener A particular type of diversity is brought to the University of Minnesota when faculty are hired from other countries. They clearly contribute to the internationalization of the scholarly and student experience at Minnesota. Yet, they are often primarily noticed for the foreign accents and, at times, for their unfamiliarity with specifics of American academic institutions. What will the University do to help with the transition of such faculty into the local system and to help the University better materialize on the potential and enrichment they bring to scholarship and student experience?
CLA's 2015 Report points to diversity as an essential ingredient in measuring the success of graduate programs. What departments currently succeed at achieving diversity in graduate education, and how do you plan to support and reward successful programs as graduate programs are being reduced due to budget issues?
How come the Black students in the Medical school are most/all African? Has the U of M given up on recruiting qualified Black students born in this country? It seems as if we are hiding behind the
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"Black/African-American" category but not really helping change health disparities that are pervasive in U.S.-born from the African-American communities?
Our graduate programs experience tremendous pressure from funding agencies to recruit and retain students of specific diverse backgrounds (African American or Black, Hispanic or Latino, Native American, disabled, economically disadvantaged). Department alone and colleges do not seem to have the resources (or give it a high priority) to address this issue. Do the President or SVPs have specific plans to address this issue?
In adding to a colleague's comments and those of others, he states that MRSE has had a very successful program for undergraduate students and that 1/3 are graduate students. But he wants to add the importance of building and sustaining relationships with institutions that serve underrepresented minority students. Adds that 60% of students in Science and Engineering Ph.D. programs come from such institutions. Stresses that until we have those relationships established and developed more deeply, we won't be able to compete with the 'Michigan's' and others.
Undergraduate Diversity/Access
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When I went through orientation for new faculty, I asked several times about services for students who are non-native English speakers. I did not get a response. What is the University's position on Irregular admitting and more importantly supporting academically gifted students who may need English writing and speaking support?
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Innovation and inclusivity are two sides of the same coin yet this connection is frequently not seen or understood. The U of M's motto is "Driven to Discover." What can we do to create a culture where everyone who has aptitude is included on the bus?
How can we use or expand existing classes and programs (capstone courses, UROPS, interdisciplinary research centers) to involve students from underrepresented groups in publically engaged scholarship with their own communities? To me, this is the single best way to foster good university / community relations, especially among groups that are not in a position to work with fundraising or alum initiatives of the U. It has been the foundation for several recent experiments at the Immigration History Research Center.
Already President Kaler has announced a commitment to increasing the U's diversity as it finds its way in a state with growing Chicano/a, Hmong, and Somali populations. Admissions is only half the battle. What sorts of changes does the U envision to ensure that these students get the support needed once admitted? I will note that the U lacks a sustained writing curriculum -- it has decentralized much writing instruction to writing intensive courses in individual departments and has effectively shifted more work to faculty. Given the student work I see, the freshman writing courses already are not doing enough to prepare non-native speakers or those with a limited writing background. What additional support services is the U prepared to offer?
How are we defining access to undergraduate education? What should the experience of a student who is admitted to the university through an access door look like?
How can the curriculum be improved to offer more sections of writing instruction by highly trained teachers for multilingual writers whose first language is not English? The MA ESL program that supplies such teachers (and teachers for the international TA program, and the intensive English program) is threatened with closure because of budgetary pressures. Can Central Administration
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designate funds to reopen the only graduate program in the state that supplies language teachers for postsecondary international and immigrant students?
How can we increase scholarship support for disadvantaged students? How can knowledge of successful (and unsuccessful) tools, techniques, and approaches of departments and colleges for addressing diversity issues be made more readily available across the University?
I am in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Program and we have a very high ESL/immigrant population in our program, probably the highest in the Academic Health Center. The Institute of Medicine has expressed the need for increasing diversity in healthcare, and as an undergraduate program, the CLS program provides a great entry point for this population to enter healthcare careers. However, communication skills are also crucial in healthcare, and many of these students need help to improve their English skills. Services to help ESL students improve their communication skills have steadily decreased over the past several years. Are there any plans to increase these services again?
I believe that there are two major issues - recruitment and retention. My questions focus on retention. How can we make resources for underrepresented groups in science and engineering (e.g., queer students, students of color, students with disabilities, and more) more accessible and visible so as to minimize the feeling of isolation many of these students (staff and faculty, as well) feel?
Scholarships: Is there a plan to replace the scholarship matching program that came to an end last year? Both our donors and our fundraisers are eager to start working with a new program. While this is broader than a diversity initiative, scholarships are a crucial piece in our efforts to recruit more diverse students.
What are some of the barriers to cultivating a supportive, vibrantly diverse learning environment at the University of Minnesota?
What can be done to protect programs that support and nurture the academic success of diverse students across the entire university, but are at risk of being closed by colleges due to budget cuts? Can these programs be moved out of such colleges and into a more central location that can keep them functioning to serve the entire university? On Oct 28, 2011, the CLA Dean closed admissions to the M.A. in ESL graduate program. This program is the only one in the state that develops ESL instructors for university students; its graduates teach academic language skills to international and immigrant students on the Twin Cities campus in the UMN Writing Studies Dept., the International TA Program, the Minnesota English Language Program, and PSTL in CEHD, as well as in Morris and Duluth, and also serve on the faculty of virtually every other ESL graduate program in the state. Subsequently, letters, articles, editorials and a column appeared in the Daily. The Daily makes the case that this program should be reopened because it supports the linguistic diversity of the campus (http://www.mndaily.com/2011/11/29/cutting-esl-was-mistake and http://www.mndaily.com/2011/12/06/eliminating-ma-esl-will-reduce-diversity). The CLA Dean says the program is "not a priority" in the CLA and he cannot afford to replace even one of the two retiring tenure line faculty in that program. What can be done to put this program on safer footing so it can continue to support multilingual learners across colleges in the UMN?
What can we do in a coordinated and collaborative way as a campus to help students from underrepresented communities to be successful in getting into the health professions that need them (e.g. medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, veterinary medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy).
Another person called out "distributed learning" so that we connect our students' learning.
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One faculty member is concerned with pipeline issues and how the University views diversity. Feels that they are penalized for having part-time (and non-traditional) students which conflicts with "saying" we want to diversify. Also concerned about metrics interfering with achieving our goals. Not around the funding but instead being judged on completion time impacted by nontraditional students.
She has concerns and questions around partnerships/competition between MN SCU and UMN and how that impacts diverse student groups such as transfer students and non-native English speaking students. Also, she has heard remarks about MN SCU doing better than the University in supporting these students.
Additional Comments/Questions
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I guess my biggest question has to do with the diversity of thought—and particularly, the role of abstract, non-applied, and humanistic thought at a university that seems to be moving more and Irregular shapes multiple colors from t more into a tech and product-oriented applied direction. Lip service toward the artsinand humanities seems only to encompass middle-brow practice oriented art and writing as a kind of palette add movement and energy to a g window dressing, while ignoring non-applied, non-practice based humanistic and art theory as being a constitutive part of university scholarship with a future beyond ever-more teaching of larger and larger groups of undergraduates.
I am brand new here at the U, but at my previous institution (UC Riverside) I served for 4 years as the Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Equity and Diversity. I'm interested to hear what is happening here and see how I might contribute!
I would like your comment or response to the following quote, taken from a presentation at the 2009 wild rice symposium "People Protecting Manoomin: Manoomin Protecting People": "A problem with Western Science, that is inherently its own problem, is that in its quest for excellence, in so many ways it makes the mistake of running over or not noticing what other people may have to contribute, in its effort to not only to do 'good research', but also to protect what scientists feel is the integrity of the scientific process." -Paul Schultz, traditional healer and spiritual leader, 2009.
What is the strategy for better interfacing with the surrounding (and more remote) industry to increase collaboration and funding now that the MN-IP policy is in place?
When there is a conflict between a student (of color) and a faculty of color, how does the U handle the conflict? The Office for Equity and Diversity will represent/advise which side?
Attending seminars, meeting with colleagues, and networking with other programs is an important part of academic life on the Twin Cities' campuses. Transportation to or from the various parts of the University-TC has become difficult, a time-waster, and sometimes impossible for those with mobility impairments. Will anything be improved during and after the LRT construction project, now projected to continue until 2014?
Here's what I'd say if called upon to speak during the listening session: We need to collaborate across institutional boundaries in new ways. We need to better leverage digital technology to create shared learning experiences and opportunities for student exchange. We need to better share and promote successful models. We need boldness, nimbleness, goal setting and more incentives for investments of time, creative energy and resources. And we need a BIG university-
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wide conversation about what diversity means in the 21st Century—a serious, intellectually rigorous conversation. Not lecturing, but a real conversation.
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Four issues/concerns raised: 1. Pipeline issues. 2. Metrics contrast ability to enhance diversity. 3. "Problem" of part-time students. 4. Non-traditional students may be affected. Penalties because "metrics" determine how program is perceived and evaluated. Feels that expanding diversity in curriculum and classroom is often challenging. Even if you have the motivation to do so where does the money/time (resources) come from as it is not easy and takes work to build relationships and be inclusive of voices with people and communities whose philosophies, as well as learning and teaching styles, are non-Western and who may not be comfortable with the processes in place at the University. It is very resource intensive, so how can we inject additional resources to do this so that we can learn from one another? With immigrant families and communities where the field is not seen as an area of study it requires a tremendous amount of work to show the value of this to students, their families, and other faculty who aren't familiar with different types of dance and art making. And it takes time to make it clear that this is not just window dressing. How can we say, we're committed to this for 7 years? Take the funding concern out of this.
