Faculty passes proposed actions on race and diversity issues

The faculty of Arts, Sciences, & Engineering debated, voted on, and passed a proposal to help race and diversity issues in the classroom at Wednesday's AS&E faculty meeting. The proposal, presented by the Faculty Executive Committee, had received strong support in prior faculty discussions on Feb. 5.

The vote on the proposals on "race and diversity issues in students' academic experience" included three motions. The first motion would require all departments devote at least one departmental meeting to issues of race and ethnicity by May 2004, and the second would set a goal for all departments to have at least 50 percent of their faculty attend a University-sponsored diversity workshop. The last motion would require department chairs to spotlight departmental efforts related to diversity in their annual reports.

The first and third motions passed without any debate, but the second motion -- which would force faculty to attend diversity workshops -- raised some questions from faculty members. Several department chairs argued that they do not have the authority to force their faculty to comply with those demands. Chair of Russian, German, and Asian Languages Vida Johnson called the second proposals' intentions "laudable but not doable."

History professor Steven Marrone also raised the concern that the program could present funding constraints. In response, Executive Committee Chair Gary Goldstein encouraged all departments to take advantage of and work closely with the Office of Diversity Education and Development as well as the Office of Equal Opportunity.

The faculty should pass the motion encouraging 50 percent of department members to attend workshops and then make a "departmental decision how to achieve that," Goldstein said.

Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering Robert Gonsalves said that he supported the measures, and that the effort needed to enact them should not be too much of a problem. "It's benign, I think it's a step in the right direction," Gonsalves said. "It's probably always a good idea to keep people on their toes," about diversity issues, he said.

Initial student reaction to the measures has been mixed, but has generally supported the sentiment behind the proposals, if not their substance. "It is important to bring this issue to attention. People underestimate how much discrimination can affect a person's life," international student Elaine Andriejanssen said.

But other students were less optimistic about the proposals. "I do not see how these particular steps will be effective," freshman Nancy Chen said. "I have some doubts about how these proposals by the faculty will affect the immediate discriminating experiences of the students, if at all."

On Feb. 5, faculty participated in eight round-table discussions on students' experiences with diversity and discrimination. Nine proposals of possible actions by the faculty were distributed at that meeting, and the three that were most strongly supported were presented on Wednesday's vote.

The remaining proposals that were formed during the round-table discussions could come forward for debate and be voted on in the future.