The committee met from noon to 1:30 in the Chrystal Center conference room on the lower level. Present were: Giovanni Cortez, Katya Gibel Azoulay, Kristin Lovig, Mary Phipps, Laura Sinnett, and Melanie Yazzie.
The committee continued their discussions from the previous meeting.
The need for documenting student grievances against professors whose behavior demonstrates a lack of sensitivity, at the minimum, to diversity issues was discussed. Committee members debated the merits of surveying the entire student body versus only surveying students of color. The committee decided that the primary purpose was documentation of incidents (to later inform educational efforts) and not statistical comparisons between student constituencies, so that surveying only students of color would be sufficient.
The committee discussed the need for diversity training for faculty, moderated by outside consultants. Awareness of faculty culture should inform any such training that occurs in order to avoid faculty disaffection evident in many instances in which more business-oriented consultants are retained. Ideally, this training be requested by the Executive Council and would be attended by almost all faculty. The training would not be required, but the communication of a strong attendance norm would be relied upon to increase attendance. Finally, documentation of grievances by students of color could inform these training efforts by serving as evidence of the need and providing evidence of the issues that need to be addressed during training.
The committee briefly discussed the faculty appointment process and curricular diversity.
The committee decided to meet next on Friday, February 21 to develop a list of specific ideas to broaden the diversity of faculty, staff, students, and the curriculum.
Respectfully submitted,
Laura Sinnett
