Diversity Task Force Recommendations |
Preamble
Every member of this committee has been involved with and heavily invested in diversification efforts throughout their careers at Saint Mary’s College and enthusiastically welcomes President Mooney’s emphasis on diversity as a college priority. While we believe many of the initiatives undertaken by the College have made a positive contribution, we also believe their impact has been partial at best. While the College has provided some resources, the most consistent form of support for these programs has been a series of Lilly grants. These grants have provided an important array of opportunities for committed individuals and small groups to develop new programs.
The positive effects of these programs have been undermined, however, by the short term nature of the grants and the lack of a comprehensive institutional commitment to diversity. Our work has convinced us that diversity at Saint Mary’s cannot be understood solely in terms of changes at the grassroots, however valuable they may be. Genuine diversification of a historically white college such as Saint Mary’s requires institutional transformation, and that cannot happen without active leadership and a clear vision of the benefits of a diverse campus. While we will make concrete recommendations, we assert strongly that without a comprehensive institutional commitment and driving leadership, diversity at Saint Mary’s will remain mostly a buzzword. The case we are making is, after all, not new. Most of what we are recommending was contained in the report of the Diversity Committee of the Jubilee Community Strategic Plan in 2001. Our principle challenge, four years later, is to move to action.
The Moral and
Institutional Rationale for Diversity
The rationale for diversification is both moral and instrumental. Our Mission Statement proclaims that “In order to offer the richest educational experience possible, the College strives to bring together women of different nations, cultures, and races.” We also seek to nurture “awareness and compassion for a troubled world” and prepare women for “roles of leadership and action in the worlds of work, church, community, and family.” Evaluated in comparison to these demanding but essential purposes, the College still has much to do before the goals of our Mission Statement become a reality.
While recognizing
the College’s current budget difficulties, we are also convinced that Saint
Mary’s cannot simply wait for better days. Successful diversification will
increase enrollments and make the College more attractive. As we tighten our
belts and examine our priorities more closely in the next few years, diversity
must be seen as essential to the solution and integrated into our budget
priorities as fully as possible. This assertion is supported by research on the
demographics of the college student population. A report by the Educational
Testing Service estimated that 80% of the growth in the college student
population over the next decade will be accounted for by students of color.
While the number of “white” students within that population will grow slightly,
it will decline in several key states. Two of the states from which Saint
Mary’s College recruits most heavily—
The Higher Learning Commission has clearly indicated the importance of diversity in assessing the work of colleges and universities with regard to the criteria of “integrity in its practices and relationships.” The HLC will seek evidence of “policies and practices consistent with its mission related to equity of treatment, nondiscrimination, affirmative action, and other means of enhancing access to education and the building of a diverse educational community.” Another of the criteria asks if Saint Mary’s College assesses “the usefulness of our curriculum for living in a global, diverse world.” The recommendations of this Task Force will provide the College with concrete criteria for program development and assessment, as well as demonstrating our commitment to and engagement in practices that promote the mission of the College.
Costs and Benefits: The
Big Picture
What are the costs of action? In part they are financial. The College will need to broaden its faculty and curriculum and strengthen its student support infrastructure in ways we will discuss. We don’t believe the most difficult and threatening “costs” are financial, however. The most challenging costs are cultural and psychological and must be confronted honestly. Diversification requires cultural transformation. We cannot be content to simply invite diversity into our community; we must also be prepared to change as a community. That will be a painful process because it will require examining conventional images of who and what a “Saint Mary’s woman” is. It will mean leaving comfort zones and developing the skills to deal with the difficult dialogues and uncomfortable confrontations that diversification also entails. Cultural tensions will increase before they improve. No one in this community will be immune from the potential for hurt and disturbance this process will entail, and we should forthrightly acknowledge this challenge.
What are the
benefits? We will have the satisfaction of more fully realizing the goals we
aspire to in our Mission Statement. Saint Mary’s College will remain a vibrant
and engaged place of liberal learning. Students of color will leave the College
feeling that their whole person has been nurtured. All students will enter
their future communities more skilled and comfortable in their ability to live
and work cross-culturally. Faculty will be able to know they can teach and
mentor all their students. These are liberating responses to cope with the fear
of change. The good news is that resources and support our available. Many on
this Task Force, as well as other members of our community, have received
excellent training at conferences sponsored by AACU, National Conference On Race and Ethnicity (NCORE), the National Multicultural
Institute, and other organizations. Much knowledge is already among us.
What is Diversity?
Given the diversity and richness of human
experience, we at Saint Mary’s College challenge every member of the campus
community to acknowledge, appreciate, respect, and learn from the ‘differences’
that can separate rather than unite the campus as a genuine learning and
teaching community dedicated to the education of women in the Catholic
tradition of the liberal arts. We
include in our definition of ‘differences’ those related to gender, ethnicity,
race, socio-economic status, religion, sexual orientation, nationality,
political orientation, and physical and mental abilities/disabilities
In the area of
recruitment and retention, we support diversification of our student body,
staff and faculty as widely as possible, but place particular importance on ethnic
and racial diversity based on historical injustices.
Recommendation 1:
Saint Mary’s College will institutionalize a clear and concrete commitment to diversity emanating from the highest levels of the college and affecting curricular and community change.
Step 1 A persuasive internal rationale for this institutional commitment will be developed and communicated to all College divisions and the Board of Trustees. This rationale will draw upon our current mission, our Catholic tradition of inclusiveness, and the long-term institutional health of the College. This commitment will also be conveyed in statements in our Bulletin and on the College website.
Step 2 The College will establish accountability mechanisms and adequate resources and support for those offices most clearly charged with leading our efforts; the means of coordinating these efforts will also be clearly established. The President will require all Vice Presidents to include diversity-related goals in their Division budgets and make assessment of performance in the realization of those goals a routine part of the performance review of all members of the President’s Cabinet. As the curriculum should also integrate and reflect the College’s awareness of the importance of diversity-related education, diversity criteria will also be evaluated by the Curriculum Committee.
Step 3 A standing Diversity Oversight Committee will be established to ensure coordination of efforts and to assist the President with the evaluation of programs and divisions. The Chair of this Committee will report periodically to the President and have a voice in the Cabinet.
Step 4 The College community will be educated about why having a diverse campus is fundamental to our students’ education and to their lives at Saint Mary’s. Division heads will, in proactive ways, make it clear to all those who work under them that diversity is a central goal of the division. It must be understood that diversification is a goal that will challenge Saint Mary’s to examine its own culture. Training programs should be designed so that all at Saint Mary’s understand the importance of these efforts and learn the methods to accomplish these goals.
Recommendation 2:
The
commitment to diversity will be strengthened and deepened throughout the curriculum.
It is in the classroom that the College has the most long lasting impact on students. An institutional commitment to promoting an understanding of the multicultural condition in which we live is an essential element of effectively educating students in the twenty-first century. Commitment to diversity in the curriculum is likely to increase faculty and student retention, as well as promote an increase in the diversity of the student body
Although each department is addressing diversity-related concerns, and some departments have already begun to incorporate diversity requirements, such efforts are not coordinated or evaluated in a systematic manner, nor are they an integral part of the curriculum.
Step 1 The College will establish a Diversity Requirement in a manner similar to the Advanced Writing Proficiency Requirement. Departments at Saint Mary’s not only have an influential role in the college, but also in the lives of our students, and departments are in the best position to assess the needs of students in their disciplines. This approach will provide the diversification of the curriculum with more legitimacy by giving departments a central role and making them stakeholders in the process. A variety of efforts and initiatives over the past decade have begun this process, but this approach is unique in utilizing the adoption of a Diversity Requirement as a catalyst to promote faculty discussion of and commitment to diversity-aware educational processes.
Step 2 Each department will develop its own discipline-specific methods of addressing diversity and assessing whether diversity-related competencies are being achieved by students. The department will propose to the Curriculum Committee procedures for satisfying their own departmental Diversity Requirement. A wide variety of approaches to satisfying the requirement could be effective, depending on discipline-specific concerns, and the development of such requirements is certain to increase faculty discussion of and commitment to diversity-aware educational processes. Adopting such a requirement will provide an organized strategy for the cultural transformation required in the journey toward diversifying the curriculum.
Step 3 Attention to diversification of the curriculum will become a central component in approving new tenure-track lines, recruiting faculty, and reviewing progress toward tenure and promotion. It will also be a regular component in curricular assessment by departments and the Curriculum Committee.
Step 4 Efforts will be made to retain
CWIL funding that supports diversifying the curriculum, such as recruiting
fellows whose focus is on teaching and providing funds for faculty development
with regard to diversity-related curricular goals.
Projected Costs: Several departments
might choose to develop new courses. Those courses can be supported with
resources from CFAI’s New Course Development Grants
as well as Annual Fellow, Faculty Travel, and Departmental Grants from CWIL.
P lunch-type discussions about diversity could also be held to support the
process of developing such a requirement.
Whenever possible, courses fulfilling the diversity requirement should be taught by full-time Saint Mary’s faculty. In order to realize this goal, the College will need to commit to providing adjunct faculty to cover other departmental needs. When departments are able to fulfill this requirement with existing full-time faculty, this need will be taken into account when designing new full-time positions—either by seeking new faculty who can teach a diversity course or can cover part of the responsibilities of a current full-time faculty member. While exact projections are difficult, initial adoption of this requirement could add 6-10 new adjunct positions each semester.
Recommendation 3:
The President will mandate that the Admissions Office expand its efforts to recruit underrepresented student populations.
Step 1 The new Vice President for Enrollment Management will be asked to develop an action plan. This plan will establish measurable goals and evidence of progress criteria for increased enrollment of underrepresented groups over the next 3-5 years.
The Saint Mary’s Admissions Office will continue to actively recruit underrepresented student populations and International students. Underrepresented student populations include first generation college students, students from economically disadvantaged regions of the country, and students who are currently underrepresented because of income, race, family educational background and/or disability. The Admissions Office will receive an annual list of high schools in areas with high levels of underrepresented students from the Department of Education and visit high schools with high student of color enrollment rates. An annual review and assessment of what is working and what is not working will be submitted in a written report to the President of the College and the Diversity Task Force. The recruitment goals for underrepresented populations will be 12% of the incoming class in three years, 15% in five years, and an ultimate goal of 17% by 2012. This can be done by implementing coordinated strategies that have been successful at similar schools and recommendations by consultants.
Step 2 This effort will be supported by a commitment to provide adequate and stable resources to offices such as Financial Aid, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership.
Step 3 Recruitment initiatives are important, but these efforts will be undermined if more attention is not given to retention of underrepresented students. The collective experience of the members of this Task Force indicates that Saint Mary’s remains a very difficult environment for the student who is not white, Catholic, heterosexual, “able-bodied,” or middle to upper class. While she can tell her story to a sympathetic friend, teacher, or administrator, the absence of procedures which inspire trust and confidence prevent her from reporting these experiences in a manner which can prompt institutional reflection and change. To help retain students we will implement an intensive case management system for students on campus that regularly schedules individual meetings with all underrepresented students. The case management system should address academic coursework, social experiences, and timely resolution of problems and difficulties. This system should also involve partnerships with faculty and administrators to provide advising and advocacy.
To this end, the College will support training programs for faculty and staff which examine the day-to-day realities of being a member of an underrepresented population on this campus and encourage faculty and staff to examine their own practices and assumptions. Topics of such programs should include white privilege, racism, sexism, homophobia, gay, bisexual and lesbian history, socio-economic class and class differences, religious diversity, disabilities/abilities, the differences in and relationship between various forms of oppression, harassment issues, and hate crimes. This effort will be most effective when underrepresented students are actively involved in their own educational process. The Diversity Committee will play an advisory role in aiding the recruitment and retention of a diverse student body. To that end, a member of the taskforce will serve as a liaison on the Admission Committee.
Step 4 The President, working with the Cabinet, will establish systematic grievance procedures for the handling of discrimination and harassment complaints by students, staff, and faculty. Such procedures exist at many institutions, and the Diversity Task Force can provide more information. We are aware that efforts to create such a process are being undertaken by the Student Affairs division. These efforts must continue and be carried over to cover all members of our community. Such procedures must be established carefully so that they are perceived as accessible and fair. Bringing complaints against a colleague, teacher, or classmate is not an easy matter. Informal procedures must be established that provide an initial place for someone who believes they have been the victim of discrimination to discuss their situation and their options in a non-threatening environment. Once the complaint has been made formally, the mechanisms by which the complaint will be heard, reviewed, and ruled upon must also be clear and fair to all parties involved.
Projected Costs: Given the expertise of the incoming Vice
President for Enrollment Management, we are confident he will organize his
division appropriately and do not offer any precise staffing or program
suggestions or cost estimates at this point.
The Office of
Multicultural Affairs has been long been a crucial—and greatly overtaxed—office
on campus. The Administrative Assistant of the Office of Multicultural Affairs
should become a full-time position. This will enable the OMA Director to take a
more proactive role in the implementation of College-wide initiatives, while
the OMA staff is better able to serve students and work with Enrollment
Management, Academic Affairs, and other divisions.
We anticipate that the offices of Academic Affairs, Students Affairs, and Human Resources would be required to spend some time on the administration of complaint procedures. An additional cost would be generated by the time faculty and staff spent serving as members of grievance committees or in other parts of the process. There would also be a cultural cost. The establishment of these procedures, in conjunction with diversity training, will generate more complaints in the short run. These procedures will bring painful and difficult issues into the open. Those who find themselves the subject of a complaint may feel that they have done nothing which warrants investigation. Some will believe they are the victims of “political correctness.” These problems can best be dealt with by making the goal of the process better mutual understanding rather than simply punishment. We believe that most people in our community want Saint Mary’s College to be a welcoming place and when confronted by evidence of their own insensitivity will be moved to reflection and change. Nonetheless, these procedures are necessary to establish the moral and legal responsibilities of all members of our community and to demonstrate that our commitment to diversity is genuine. Complaints will need to be supported by evidence, but when evidence of discrimination is persuasive clear consequences will be established. Procedures of this kind exist at many institutions, and the Task Force can make more information available.
Recommendation 4:
Diversification of Saint Mary’s College also requires that we recruit and retain diverse faculty and staff. Having a diverse array of mentors and authority figures is not simply essential for the retention of minority students, it is crucial to the preparation of all Saint Mary’s students. This is especially important with regard to faculty because of the central role they play in the intellectual life of our students. To this end:
The President and the Dean of Faculty will articulate a strong and consistent case for the recruitment of more diverse faculty and staff.
Step 1 The Vice President and Dean of Faculty will be charged with developing an action plan for the recruitment of a more diverse faculty, with particular emphasis on racial and ethnic diversity. This plan will be based on estimations of current faculty strengths, projected retirements, and overall curriculum needs. It will also establish measurable goals. This goal will be made a priority area for use of the recently obtained Lilly New Faculty Grant.
Step 2 The Vice President and Dean of
Faculty and Director of Human Resources will develop a formal process that will
provide information and training to hiring managers, search committees, and
academic departments to assist in the development of a diverse applicant
pool. Hiring managers, search
committees, and academic departments will be held accountable for that outcome.
It will be made clear to Department Chairs that future searches must draw upon
a diverse pool of applicants. When a search committee or academic department is
not able to demonstrate efforts toward diversifying their pool of candidates,
the search will not be permitted to conclude until such efforts are made. These initiatives should draw upon an active
effort to learn from the experiences of other institutions and the research on
best practices developed by organizations such as AACU.
Projected Costs: As noted above, the College should use some of the resources from the recent Lilly grant to pursue this recommendation. The College can also pursue the establishment of Endowed Chairs that either attract well-established faculty of color or open up the budget for new faculty lines. There is a widely held stereotype that candidates of color can command higher salaries at more prestigious institutions and are not as likely to be interested in positions at historically white liberal arts colleges. Research by AACU indicates that these assumptions are inaccurate. In recent years Saint Mary’s College has been successful in recruiting more diverse faculty, and we encourage reflection on how we can continue to be successful in attracting and retaining candidates. The College needs to make a commitment to being competitive in the recruiting of candidates of color, but we also need to think creatively about making the College an appealing choice for job candidates. We believe campus culture rather than money is the principle obstacle, but fortunately it is an obstacle that we have the power to change.