Penn State Intercom......November 8, 2001

Administrators focus
on diversity at seminar

By Allison Kessler
Public Information

University administrators, including the President's Council, college deans and department heads focused on building collaborative and diverse communities as they met to discuss furthering the University's commitment to enhance diversity, in a one-day seminar held Nov. 1 at The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.

"Local events at University Park last year, and national and international events on and since Sept. 11, make the need for us to build such communities and have them work collaboratively all the more evident," said Robert Secor, vice provost for academic affairs.

Terrell Jones, vice provost for educational equity, discussed strategic evaluation of campus diversity, including race, gender, sexual orientation and religion, at the meeting.

"This session was contracted as part of the new plan to enhance diversity and designed to give senior administrators an opportunity to talk about diversity initiatives and the improvements we can make to our whole campus culture," Jones said.

In his evaluation of the dimensions of campus diversity, Jones noted the University community needs to continue to focus on campus climate, but also must start taking a look at the educational environment.

James Stewart, a senior faculty mentor who was called upon during the heightened tensions in 1988 as well as last spring, noted a lack of institutional learning that occurred between the two time periods. "We need to change the institutional culture. All of us have a role and need to really take the process seriously. We must understand students' culture and identity."

In addition, Stewart said student activism often is motivated by racial violence.

"Racial violence is a serious problem that is growing. But students understand much better than we do that curriculum does matter."

The University's current diversity requirement is being revamped to integrate concepts, issues, events and themes from the perspectives of diverse ethnic and cultural groups. Ultimately, said John Nichols, chair of the University Faculty Senate, the University will achieve the highest level of integration of multicultural content to enable students to apply diversity learning to real-world problems.

"Our major goal is to develop minds, not just fill minds," Nichols said. "We want to develop intellectual skills of comparative analysis and emphasize active learning rather than passive acceptance."

Syedur Rahman, research associate and program director of the Humphrey Fellowship Program, reiterated these thoughts with viewpoints from both Muslim and Arab student associations. This community discovered, through its crusade for understanding following the Sept. 11 attacks, the importance of educational programming.

"Our message is not to call for peace or stop war," he said. "The main purpose is to educate and learn about living together in a welcoming environment."

In addition to the important perspective on the dynamics of diversity at the University provided by insiders, Secor stressed the importance of enlisting the advice of an outside source as he introduced Marilyn Gist, Boeing endowed professor of business management and professor of management and organization at the University of Washington.

In her presentation, Gist emphasized that the most vital part of understanding comes with the recognition of self worth.

"Racism is a systematic treatment of one group as less than another. Those who are treated that way will feel indignant. They value that uniqueness they bring and want to see it valued in a larger sense. Actions that deny there is an adverse impact inflame people when they see it."

The No. 1 issue at stake, according to Gist, is dignity. She said the challenge is not simply tactical but requires an emotional commitment.

"We won't succeed just by having a diversity requirement. The bottom line is in terms of valuing uniqueness and part of that means broadening our definition of excellence."  

Allison Kessler can be reached at akessler@psu.edu.

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