Chancellor’s Diversity Initiatives Committee releases five-year plan

Chancellor’s Diversity Initiatives Committee releases five-year plan

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

The Chancellor’s Diversity Initiatives Committee recently released a preliminary five-year plan for building an inclusive community on the Urbana campus. The 28-member committee, appointed by Chancellor Richard Herman and Provost Linda Katehi in August, proposed four broad strategic initiatives: increasing representation of students and faculty and staff members from underrepresented groups through more aggressive recruitment and retention efforts, creating an environment of respect in the workplace and in education, enhancing diversity scholarship, and promoting diversity in the community and through civic engagement.

The committee suggested benchmarks of increasing the enrollment of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups from 16 percent to 25 percent, and increasing their graduation rate from 56 percent to 85 percent by 2012. To do that, the campus could initiate scholarships and merit fellowships for undergraduates and graduate students and for out-of-state students with severe physical disabilities; provide additional funding for evaluating students for undiagnosed cognitive disabilities; and establish a provost-level unit responsible for benchmarking and tracking progress toward recruitment, retention and graduation rates.

Several of the 50 activities proposed by the report would target American Indian students specifically, with the benchmarks of increasing enrollment of American Indian freshmen to at least 100 students and American Indian transfer students and graduate students to 50 each by 2012. The committee suggested providing free in-state tuition to students descended from tribes that were indigenous to Illinois through a new program called Illinois First Nation, and implementing Project 200 for American Indian students, a student-based recruitment program similar to the UI’s Special Educational Opportunities Program – known as Project 500 – that increased enrollment of African-American and Latino students during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Other recommendations included establishing a permanent Native Elder-in-Residence in the American Indian Studies Program and cultivating relationships with Indian nations, organizations that serve them and universities with historically high percentages of American Indian students. In order to enhance workplace diversity, the committee suggested offering academic professionals and staff members professional-development and training opportunities, such as fellowships, sabbaticals for research, and exchange programs with other institutions, and offering incentives for workers to seek professional development. To increase retention of faculty and staff members from underrepresented groups, the committee suggested establishing a young/new professionals network to help reduce social isolation. Cultural competency education for all members of the campus community was an integral part of the plan, such as diversity training for staff members and a mandatory course for students. As peer universities have done, the committee suggested launching a Hate-Free Zone Campaign to promote social justice. But in order to foster a tolerant, inclusive campus, the UI Board of Trustees must eliminate Chief Illiniwek by the end of 2007, the committee said. “The committee members strongly feel that the Chief is an impediment to creating a welcoming, inclusive environment, and that the university should completely ban the Chief,” including all symbols/logos and their usage rights, said Helen Neville, professor of educational psychology and of African-American studies. Neville co-chairs the diversity initiatives committee with Feniosky Pena-Mora, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and an Associate Provost Fellow. Recent incidents of intolerance such as race-themed student parties and threatening messages toward American Indian students and a faculty member that were posted on a pro-Chief Web site drew stern criticism from Herman in e-mail messages to the campus community. Herman said the Office of Student Conflict Resolution would be investigating the threats and “the university will take all legal and disciplinary actions available.” Accordingly, in its interim report the committee recommended revising the Student Code of Conduct to establish consequences for individuals and groups who engage in group-based bigotry and hate activities. The committee also suggested that equitable facilities and resources be provided to the cultural houses and units that study or serve underrepresented communities, and that a capital development office be created with the goal of increasing the endowments for diversity initiatives to $32 million by 2012. In accordance with Herman’s strategic plans for the Urbana campus, the committee hopes to establish Illinois as a pre-eminent example of diversity in higher education, in part by redeveloping Orchard Downs as a model community. Institutional policies and practices have “historically hindered advancements toward diversity and inclusion,” as has the absence of a centralized unit responsible for coordinating diversity-related information, communications and efforts, the report said. Pena-Mora said the committee will submit its final report to Herman and Katehi in May and wants input. “We want to talk to more stakeholders, refine the activities and metrics, ensure the goals are achievable and devise ways to incorporate them into the strategic plan,” Pena-Mora said. “We see the interim report as a living document. We want to build upon some of the successes that have occurred because it’s imperative for the campus to achieve this and the strategic plan.”

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