Now is an historic time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as we embark on the process of selecting a new Chancellor and begin the campus-wide process for a new institutional diversity plan.
The university has a rich history of engaging issues of diversity as a major institutional priority that reaches back into the 1960s; beginning in 2009, we have operated under the campus-wide strategic framework “For Wisconsin and the World,” in which diversity is a major theme of activation. While gains have resulted from these continuing efforts, creating a new campus wide diversity plan presents a powerful opportunity for us to bring even greater clarity to our diversity objectives, goals, and strategies, and establish a national best practice approach to embedding accountability and incentives into our institutional efforts.
A series of conversations with senior leadership has encouraged me to begin a campus-wide diversity planning process, with a new diversity, equity and inclusion plan by the end of the second semester as our ultimate goal. This memo outlines some of our pre-planning activities and the general process that will unfold.
Pre-Planning Process
At the 2012 Campus Diversity Forum, past and current participants in the Office of Equity and Diversity (OED) Learning Communities joined with other campus volunteers in helping to lead an important pre-planning roundtable conversation with some 400 campus community members. That conversation focused on diversity priorities and key strategies for the successful implementation of a new plan; the various themes that emerged will be shared with the campus community prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. At the same time, my office will release an integrated report, compiled from several campus diversity updates that will provide an overview of the many diversity initiatives taking place centrally, as well as in academic and administrative units across campus.
Pre-Conversations and Meetings
It is essential that we hear from students, faculty, staff, and community members during this process. For this purpose, I have begun meeting with leaders in central administration, governance leaders in the University Committee (UC), the Diversity Committee of the Associated Students of Madison (ASM), the Campus Diversity and Climate Committee (CDCC), and the Faculty Senate Committee on Undergraduate Recruitment, Admissions and Financial Aid (CURAFA). Meetings have been scheduled with the Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC), campus Multicultural Disadvantaged Coordinators (MDCs), and the chairs group of the Equity and Diversity Committees (EDC). I will also participate in the ASM Diversity Committees shared governance week, where I look forward to the opportunity to speak with many students and hear their perspective as we embark upon this process. We are also scheduling group meetings with deans and directors as part of our early conversations.
Developing an Ad hoc Diversity Committee
Following a consultative meeting with me, the University Committee has authorized its Chapter 6 Campus Diversity and Climate Committee (CDCC) to create an ad hoc planning committee, to insure strong representation from our numerous governance communities and a range of different perspectives from students, faculty and staff, as we engage issues of diversity. Working with the CDCC as the chancellor’s designee and committee co-chair with Prof. Marlys Macken, I will help ensure that the planning process will involve constituencies who bring not only a keen interest in issues of diversity, but deep insight into what our next diversity plan must entail. The ad hoc committee should have representation that reflects the breadth of diversity expertise that exists on our campus in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, age, disability, national origin and religion. Our timeline calls for the ad hoc planning committee to be in place by the end of this fall semester, with a series of campus conversations and planning meetings convened in the spring semester 2013. A campus-wide survey of ideas and suggestions for diversity within the framework of inclusive excellence is planned.
Linking with Other Campus Initiatives
This diversity planning process will not unfold in a vacuum. Rather, the process will leverage the numerous conversations and reports that were developed as part of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates (MIU), the UW-System Campus Climate Project, efforts from the Year of Educational Innovation, the HR Design process, recommendations from the Native American A2S Taskforce and from the Intergroup Relations and Community Building Working Group, as well as several other planning conversations that have occurred over the last 18-24 months. Rather than move forward as though these plans do not exist, the goal is to increase synergies between these efforts and our new campus diversity plan.
Communication & the Winter Inclusive Excellence Symposium
As the process unfolds, we will develop a centralized website for this project through which the OVPCDO will provide regular updates, to ensure that we remain connected in our efforts moving forward. To that end, we ask you to save the date February 15th for the Winter Inclusive Excellence Symposium, which will focus on campus diversity planning; an update from units within the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement; insights into the Fisher v. UT Austin Supreme Court cases; and a keynote speech by symposium guest speaker Nancy “Rusty” Barcelo, President of Northern New Mexico College.
On Wisconsin!
Diversity Planning Timeline
|
Activity |
Dateline |
| 2012 Diversity Forum, with some 400 members of the campus community participating in the Roundtable Conversations about diversity planning and inclusive excellence | October 12 |
| Engaged discussions with key campus groups, including an on-line discussion board specifically for students | Throughout the fall semester |
| Creation of the ad hoc committee to draft the diversity plan | End of the fall semester |
| Winter Inclusive Excellence Symposium | February 15, 2013 |
| Ad hoc Committee campus-wide listening sessions | Throughout the spring semester 2013 |
| Ad hoc Committee draft | End of the spring semester 2013 |