Task Force Minutes
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Chancellor's Diversity Task Force Minutes
Full Meeting of the Chancellor’s Diversity Task Force
September 7 @ 3 p.m.
Belk Library & Information Commons
Those present: Kinyata Adams, Tim Burwell, Beth Carroll, Robert Cherry, Chuck Claxton, Dayton Cole, Jerome Conley, Garner Dewey, Jeanne Dubino, Randy Edwards, Alyson Ebaugh, Renee’ Evans, Tom Fisher, Hank Foreman, Linda Foulsham, Kim Hall, Eric Hart, Erin Hill, Tina Hogan, Edelma Huntley, Susan King, Jesse Lutabingwa, Jeff McBride, Patricia Napiorski, Mike O’Conner, Gus Pena, Lynn Patterson, Karen Robertson, Linda Robinson, Stacy Sears, Dan Sym, Kin-Yan Szeto, David Taylor, Gary Walker, John Weaver, Suzanne Wehner, Dale Wheeler, Ezell Williams, Will Windley, and Tracey Wright
Special invited guest: Mike Rominger, university photographer and Brenda White Wright, ETSU doctoral candidate
Excused: John Blackburn, Mike Evans, Marian Tan Johnson, Martha Marking, Suzette Patterson, Angela Quick, Mary Reichel
Following the group photograph, which was taken by Mr. Rominger, Ms. T. Wright opened the meeting by welcoming everyone back to the group and welcoming the new members and the special guest, Ms. B. Wright who is a doctoral candidate from ETSU who is conducting research at Appalachian and ETSU on “Affrilachian Myths and Realities: Expectations and Experiences of African-American Students at Selected Predominantly White Institutions in Southern Appalachia." She desires to immerse herself in the culture at Appalachian to learn more, as a result she will attend the task force meetings from time to time, in addition to other events and activities. Ms. T. Wright also shared that the group had grown over the summer as she and Dr. Robinson began the process of making committee assignments and reflecting further on the nature and scope of the work of the task force.
Dr. Robinson reminded the group of the charge made to the group by Chancellor Peacock. She provoked the group to remember that diversity is a resource to be leveraged. She also pointed out key points from the charge from the Chancellor.
Dr. Robinson discussed the four primary cases for diversity. As she shared this information she made it clear that the task force members are the ambassadors for this plan, in this role they are to aid others in understanding the work of the group by serving as educated and informed spokesperson for the task force and its work. T. Wright reminded the group that it is critical that our plan address all four of the cases for diversity, as different cases will resonate with different constituents.
As Dr. Robinson and Ms. Wright shared the six strategic directions, they stressed the intentional ambiguity in the definitions being provided for the strategic directions. No plan has been developed as this is the work of the task force. The chairs made it clear that they trust the process. They also stated that the plan should be achievable, yet visionary.
The six strategic directions were announced: access and equity for students – undergraduate and graduate: chair – Dr. Huntley; access and equity for employees: chair – Ms. Foulsham; campus climate: chair – Mr. Hart; community partnerships: chair: Mr. Foreman; curriculum and research: chair – Dr. Evans; and learning and development: chair: Dr. Claxton. Membership of each of the committees was shared.
The framework for the committee reports was outlined. Each committee is to create a vision statement for their strategic direction. They are then to create no more than six objectives, with each having a list of action steps, rationale, units responsible, timeline, resources required, and assessment strategies.
Ms. Wright shared the revised timeline. Each committee’s report is due by March 30, 2008. Robinson and Wright will consolidate and write the final plan, which will be presented to the Board of Trustees at the June 6, 2008 meeting. Two full task force meetings are scheduled for the fall 2008; they are: 3:00 p. m. on Friday, October 5th and 3:00 p. m. on Friday, November 16th. Committees are expected to meet at least once a month and in more often would be optimal. Committee reports are to be made at the October 5th meeting, data summaries will be provided at the November 16th meeting. Dr. Robinson and Ms. Wright indicated that they will attend the individual committee meetings from time to time and asked the group to let them know how they can best serve them as they engage in the committee process.
Dr. Hogan discussed the focus groups that are planned and the electronic survey that will be distributed during the fall semester. Twelve focus groups will be held, seven of these are student groups and five are faculty/staff groups. The electronic campus climate survey will be sent to a random sample. It was requested that task force members be prepared to help clarify the purpose of the focus groups and surveys. Questions were raised as to why a focus group for women is not scheduled. Dr. Hogan indicated that this is the list of groups created thus far and that additional groups can be arranged. Ms. Wright and Dr. Robinson reminded the groups that they are to let Dr. Hogan and/or one of them know of additional data/information that they need to inform the work of their committee.
Dr. Robinson let the group know that Ms. Terri Lockwood has created a webpage to help keep the entire community informed of the work of this task force. The URL is: edc.appstate.edu/diversity/taskforce.html She also let the group know that an electronic class portal has been created on ASULEARN (Moodle). This will serve as the task force primary communication tool. Each member of the task force has access to it using their normal log in, user name, and password. Our two off campus task force members will be sent their passwords. Regular use of this tool is projected, as minutes and agendas will be posted in this venue, along with resources and other pertinent information. It is advised that the committee chairs invite members of academic computing services to one of their early meetings, preferably their first, to explain the features of this site.
Time was allotted for individual committees to discuss the items from the summer reading that stood out most to them. They were also asked to begin crafting a definition of diversity. In addition, each committee discussed how they would go about setting their standing meeting time.
The following are the reflections from the readings:
Access and Equity for Students, undergraduate and graduate, Committee: Most of the diversity plan samples provided address race and ethnicity only, we must move beyond just that to be more inclusive. The Penn State plan was impressive, much like ASU in its demographics, clear strong support from administration that appears to not be rhetoric. There seems to be money along with other things to help make sure that the plan is fulfilled.
Learning and Development Committee: A lot of plans seemed so much about the numbers, yet the numbers don’t tell the whole story. The AAC&U readings – love the way they frame the argument – the importance of not being just about the numbers, but rather the need to weave diversity into the fabric of the culture.
Campus Climate Committee: The Diversity Scorecard is alarming; the data provided in the tables is particularly alarming.
The article on Making Diversity Work on Campus provides information on how interracial relationships help build experiences. It also pointed out the influence that minorities can have on the learning process, when minority opinions are present – cognitive growth and development occurs, especially for members of the majority culture.
Access and Equity for Employees Committee: ASU past plans, what has happened? They appear to be ineffective, not a lot of progress has been made, some, but not full achievement. Do we know how far we have going? In the 02- 08 plan, the list of reasons that past plans were not successful, left us wondering if anything has been done to address those issues. What are the experiences are folks having now?
Curriculum and Research Committee: Inclusive excellence – when we start planning and thinking about how to include inclusive excellence in the curriculum, how will our colleagues feel about this? Will they feel that we are stepping on toes? What happens when there is no follow up? There is no inclusive excellence without follow up occurring.
Community Partnerships Committee: Demographic information – the percentage of underrepresented people. A lot of plans seem to imply that all at once these people will be there to get to make goals. There doesn’t seem to be action steps that imply an understanding that it won’t fix itself. Some plans had strange things about community in them. How do we define community, how do we forge community, how has this definition changed, how is it different based on which group we are working with?
Some of the working definitions of diversity and thoughts about the task of defining diversity that were offered:
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Creating a welcoming, supportive environment for members of all ethnic, racial, age, gender, development, class, international groups. |
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Diversity is often too narrow, some things we do right that we don’t always give self credit for what others are seeing when use the word diversity. |
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This is one of the most important things we will do, defining why it is important and why it is important to the mission of the university. If we do this well, then the other things that we do will be legally defensible. Made a reference to the University of Michigan case. |
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Welcoming of all different groups, 1st definition – groups are included when they are welcomed and have representation. Next active participation where everyone benefits from the expression, all have the same rights and opportunities. |
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We’re all similar – we’re all the university – who are the ones we aren’t welcoming? Those of certain ability and from certain socio economic status backgrounds, we need to consider those that we don’t welcome. |
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We need to change the perception of the word diversity – we need to move beyond redundancy. |
Each committee was asked to post their definitions on the ASULEARN site in the format of a wiki so that we can engage in group editing to move towards the creation of our working definition, which should lead us to a shared definition to communicate to the entire community.
Dr. Robinson and Ms. Wright thanked everyone for attending the meeting. They reminded the committees to make sure that they meet at least once prior to our next meeting.
