Present: Esmeralda Flores, Julie Owens, Kathryn Kamp, Michael Sims, Tom Sonnichsen, Kristin Lovig, and Frank Thomas
Frank Thomas apprised the committee of the latest figures on the ethnicity counts for faculty, staff, and union personnel. Those figures are attached as a part of these Minutes.
Kristin Lovig distributed the copies of the confidential search update documentations for the previous year's recruitment and appointment efforts. Lovig discussed the various recruitment advertising and explained that the College tends to rotate its local advertising between the Pennysaver and the Grinnell Herald-Register as a way of reaching the greatest number of local persons and spreading the advertising dollars expended. Lovig said that the internet site Higher Ed.com has been used successfully by the Human Resources department and she anticipated continued use of the site. Cost is a factor as the ad placement cost in the Chicago Tribune, for example, is over $5,000; and, the cost for advertising in the website is more cost effective.
Kathryn Kamp asked if there were a discernible reason that the College seemed to be not attracting minorities and women candidates-especially for the administrative offices. The attraction of women candidates for the faculty appears to be proceeding well. Michael Sims suggested that Grinnell is not getting positive recommendations from those who have had employment experiences so that the "word-of-mouth" form of advertising is not yielding candidates. It was also suggested that the College is operating somewhat as an entry point for some employees who learn or improve skills and then leave for other climes. The committee determined that the College could do more with a formal mentoring process for young people who are in the first or second jobs. It would be recognized that some of these potential candidates might leave but some might then stay. Tom Sonnichsen stated that the committee needed to encourage current faculty and staff to spread the word through current avenues of networking.
Thomas led a discussion of a proposed climate improving technique. He outlined a set of "discussion circles" in which any person from the campus could anonymously ask a question related to diversity and have that question responded to orally by Thomas at a noontime meeting. The answers also would be posted on the Diversity website for any campus person to view. Thomas stated that there might be a number of people who would be reluctant to ask a question in a public forum but would welcome the opportunity to ask anonymously or to hear the answer to a question someone had asked. The committee suggested that questions should not be specific about individual persons or their employment/appointment situations; questions should be directed to specific issues regarding campus climate or legal issues, e.g., what truly is affirmative action? Notices inviting questions and announcing the dates of the noontime gatherings could be sent to department chairs, administrative department heads, and posted on the College's website or sign in board. Implementation of this activity, Thomas said, would need to wait until the Fall Break had ended. So, it would be in November in all likelihood that the discussion circles could begin.
The committee had a small discussion of the recently produced Multicultural Brochure that had been mailed by the Admission Office. It was suggested that Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, Jim Sumner, and Lisa Alexander, Assistant Dean of Admission and Coordinator of Multicultural Admission be invited to the next meeting of the committee. Thomas agreed and will issue the invitation.
Thomas advised that the Diversity Office website is in the process of being constructed and would appear shortly.
Kamp advised that the Executive Council had not yet discussed the equal opportunity tagline forwarded to the Council; it is on the agenda for the Council's meeting of October 17, 2001.
Next Meeting: The Committee will meet at noon on November 7, 2001. The location is to be determined.
Frank Thomas
Minutes Recorder
Current Diversity (Ethnicity) Figures
American Indian: 1 executive, 2 professional (one is American Indian & Hispanic), 2 support and 3 union
Asian: 9 faculty (one Asian & Caucasian), 4 professional, 1 support
Black: 3 administrative, 1 executive, 8 faculty, 3 professional
Hispanic (or Latino Caucasian): 25 administrative, 8 executive, 171 faculty, 118 professional, 150 support, 72 union
Unknown (those not identifying or data that has not been updated): 52 faculty, 8 professional, 1 support, 2 union
The data includes Applied Music Associates in the same group as faculty.
