|
The Brooklyn College Diversity Plan
Introduction
In
1994, the Center for Diversity and Multicultural Studies
was established to provide a focal point for diversity
activities. Under presidential leadership and in line
with "pluralism and diversity" directives
from the Board of Trustees of The City University of
New York, the center's executive committee was charged
with developing a diversity plan to further channel
Brooklyn College's proactive activities in this important
endeavor.
During the past two decades, institutions of higher
education have struggled to incorporate diversity concepts
into the curriculum and promote awareness of these concepts
among students, faculty, and professional staff. Institutions
are aware that in many respects the landscape before
them still retains a variety of attributes that militate
against change. However, shifting demographics and the
growing recognition that diversity deepens intercultural
understanding are potent incentives for the development
of strong institutional initiatives to position colleges
to meet successfully the challenges of the twenty-first
century.
The starting point for Brooklyn College's initiative
is the demonstrated support and firm commitment to the
principles of diversity and pluralism evinced by the
college's administration. These are manifest in such
official statements and policies as Brooklyn College:
The Year 2000 and Beyond, Shaping the Future, the
Master Planning Committee Report, and presidential reports
on campus racial and ethnic relations written since
1985; and such actions as the hiring of a more diverse
faculty and staff, the establishment of an Office of
Affirmative Action, continued support for ethnic and
women's studies, and the college's increasingly proactive
work in the development of the communities surrounding
the campus.
The
initiative builds upon the wide array of existing college
practices and attempts to translate pedagogical, legal,
moral, and demographic imperatives into an action model.
It is intended as a guide for the creative and flexible
infusion of diversity into the curricular and administrative
policies, practices, and processes.
Background
Having men, women, people of color, persons from different
religions and age groups, and individuals with disabilities
in leadership and management roles is essential in higher
education institutions. Such diversity encourages new
program development and institutional innovation while
also mitigating the all-too-human tendency to follow
unexamined practices, which sometimes continue though
they have ceased to be effective.
Ideally, the richness and diversity of the borough's
cultural and intellectual life should be reflected in
every aspect of the college's institutional life. The
more points of view and the more references of experience
there are, the more options will appear in response
to problems and opportunities. As University of Michigan
President James Duderstadt noted, "without a [university]
population that mirrors that of our complex world, we
cannot hope to educate ourselves to be citizens of the
world" (1995 Information Gateway Project).
Through strategic planning, Brooklyn College can maintain
its leading role and national reputation among the premier
urban public higher education institutions. While our
approach to diversity must be grounded in the college's
specific institutional history and culture, we must
also look outward to the experiences of other educational
and corporate institutions, including Brown, Columbia,
Harvard, the New School, Rutgers, the University of
Wisconsin, and Xerox, all of which have made strides
in addressing diversity.
Defining Diversity
Despite some restraints, most institutions of higher
education demonstrate a commitment to the principles
of affirmative action. Qualified and capable women,
minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans
have been hired. Indeed, affirmative action provides
the cornerstone and a continuum for a meaningful diversity
effort. Yet even the fair and committed need to go beyond
affirmative action if we are truly to advance the institution.
Our evolving definition of diversity suggests that,
in both theory and practice, inclusiveness and demographic
pedagogical principles are essential to an environment
in which students, faculty, and staff appreciate and
celebrate differences in culture, ethnicity, gender,
race, religion, class, sexual orientation, physical
and mental ability, and age. This perspective holds
that knowledge of diverse cultures allows us to better
construct new theories, guide research, improve social
relations and, ultimately, deepen our understanding
of human commonality and universalism.
Brooklyn College's approach seeks to strike a balance
between pluralism/diversity and distinct group experiences/needs.
This is an inclusive learning and community transformation
process that goes beyond mere numerical diversity, choosing
instead to place a prescriptive value on interactive
diversity as an institutional and educational norm.
Objectives
The college's first strategic plan and comprehensive
approach posits both short- and long-term actions that
will effectively communicate the extraordinary educational
significance attendant to preparing students for the
diverse, pluralistic society of the next century. These
objectives are to:
•
open and transform the lines of communications about
issues of intercultural relations,
• create an environmental climate that
is conducive to an understanding of and responsiveness
to diversity in the campus community,
• attract and develop leaders from among
a variety of constituencies at all levels,
• encourage pedagogical innovation and
an academic milieu that enhances multicultural education,
• foster an ongoing public dialogue that
will lead to the development of a constituency that
acknowledges the value of diversity, and
• mobilize the energies of the college
community to seek the benefits inherent in diversity.
Recommendations
The recommendations may be categorized as structural,
human development, resource allocation, and programmatic
in nature. They cover administrative action, governance,
student life, faculty development, curriculum reform,
and community relations. In the final analysis, these
recommendations reflect a broad brush for both action
and process to address the central issue of changing
the institutional culture in a political and state budgetary
environment that is hostile to diversity (Reframing
the Institution, Bolman and Deal, 1991). As a coordinated,
collegewide undertaking, these recommendations cast
an attainable vision.
Administrative/Structural
Efforts to institutionalize diversity should include
the following:
1. Requirement for departmental, programmatic reviews
and/or annual reports that examine gender, ethnicity,
and other equity issues as part of the unit's self-study
assessment. The review should address the unit's strengths,
weaknesses, and actions taken with respect to diversity
in order to provide comparative data, policy feedback,
and a basis for vice-presidential evaluation of the
success of implementation efforts. The reviews and accompanying
analyses should be submitted to the president for appropriate
action as part of institutional program planning.
2. Expansion of financial and administrative support
for the Center for Diversity and Multicultural Studies
as the dynamic focal point in the college's diversity
process.
3.
Provision of staffing and financial incentives to individuals
and units that undertake diversity initiatives with
respect to the curriculum and the workforce.
4.
Continuation of staffing and support from the senior-level
administration for the director of Affirmative Action
in order to enhance the office's ability to play a leadership
role in grappling with the broader challenges presented
by diversity.
5.
Identification, with the assistance of the Office of
Development, of donors who will create by 2002 a funding
base to support at least two endowed or enhanced interdepartmental
faculty chairs that will bring to the campus scholars
from underrepresented ethnic/racial minority groups
in order to facilitate building a critical mass of such
faculty.
6.
Creation of shared and joint faculty lines with the
Center for Diversity and Multicultural Studies and among
academic departments so that diversity may be linked
to interdisciplinary, interdepartmental studies.
7.
Utilization of the faculty and student leadership of
the Honors Academy so that diversity planning becomes
an integral part of all honors and special program areas.
8.
Establishment of a college-community board of civic,
political, religious, business, and academic leaders
to improve the public perception of access, quality,
outreach, and constructive community relations. "Town
meetings" and other opportunities for exchange
of views and ideas, as well as community development
projects, should be encouraged and aided by faculty
expertise.
9. Creation of a committee that is charged with developing
a conflict-resolution mechanism that might be modeled
after the college's Sexual Harassment Advisory Panel.
10.
Review of all college committees to ensure gender and
ethnic diversity.
Human
Resources
A key to diversity is ongoing faculty and staff development
and training. In-house mechanisms and resources should
be established and/or enhanced (e.g., the Center for
Teaching, the Multicultural Studies Council) to provide
for a continuing process of intellectual renewal that
is in step with diversity goals.
Other measures include:
1. Creation of a multicultural resources booklet.
2. Creation of exit interviews and a diversity component
added to performance evaluations.
3.
Inclusion of visible aspects of the diversity of the
Brooklyn College community in all campus publications.
4.
Provision of appropriate enrichment, sponsorship, and
support programs for professional women, individuals
with disabilities, people of color, and other underrepresented
groups to assist them in developing their leadership
capabilities.
5.
Support of professional staff in entry- and mid-level
management positions as they pursue graduate-level educational
programs.
6.
Establishment of a program (e.g., three- to six-month
internships in specific administrative areas) in which
senior-level administrators serve as mentors to talented
members of the professional staff and faculty who have
leadership aspirations.
7.
Development of a "bridge-building" course
for managers to help them develop the skills necessary
to ensure a welcoming environment for all members of
a diverse workforce.
Student
Life
Student-based services and activities need to be enhanced
to facilitate student diversity and students' successful
navigation through academic and administrative processes.
Such measures include:
1.
Incorporating a multicultural/diversity component into
orientation programs for incoming and transfer students
and student leadership-training seminars.
2.
Providing resources for the Multicultural Assembly to
facilitate cross-cultural student club projects.
3.
Developing a multicultural approach/component for the
Student Handbook.
4.
Institutionalizing the celebration of nationally designated
months for women's history, black history, and Asian
American, Native American, and Latino heritages.
5.
Undertaking an assessment/survey of the student population
to explore ways of expanding outreach to underserved
and underrepresented communities.
6.
Supporting enrollment and recruitment planning that
incorporates the goal of maintaining a diverse student
body.
7.
Undertaking a review of student counseling for the purpose
of student retention, focusing on language, age, culture,
and other special situations faced by students.
8.
Strengthening ties with graduate pipeline programs that
have a diversity component.
9.
Establishing criteria and procedures for routine reviews
of scholarships, awards, and all other financial support,
from whatever source, in order to ensure that there
is an open and equitable process for all students.
10.
Establishing diversity scholarships for underrepresented
students where permissible.
11.
Creating a student recognition day and awards for clubs
or individuals building bridges among cultures.
12.
Conducting workshops and tutorials for students with
disabilities who need academic help.
13.
Facilitating student input that reflects the diversity
of the student body on college search and other committees.
Faculty
Immediate steps will be taken to improve the faculty's
diversity profile, including, but not limited to:
1. Development of new faculty lines and hiring protocols,
including articulations with pipeline programs and departmental
retention programs that will protect talented, diverse
junior members of the faculty and that promote the value
of diversity.
2.
Allocation of funds for outreach efforts directed toward
recruiting in order to enhance and upgrade faculty searches
at both the junior and senior levels for departments
and disciplines in which affirmative action goals have
been established so that a critical mass is built in
areas where there is underrepresentation of minorities
and women (see, for example, the Queens College Diversity
Fund).
3.
Development of formal methods and strategies for mentoring
and advising in order to improve the status of women,
people of color, and others in the sciences and other
academic areas in which there is underrepresentation
or clustering.
4.
Review and implementation of appropriate pay equity
differentials.
5.
Development of methods, forums, and workshops for helping
faculty incorporate information on diversity into their
courses. An example of this kind of action is the Presidential
Resource Grant, which enabled the Center for Teaching
to hold a conference on multiculturalism (fall 1996).
6.
The enhancement of orientation programs for new faculty
and teaching assistants to include methods of incorporating
diversity materials in course content and pedagogy.
Curriculum
A diverse interdisciplinary curriculum requires diverse
faculty with interdisciplinary skills (Boyer, 1995).
The college must undertake an interdisciplinary model
of faculty and curriculum diversity as these elements
are mutually dependent. As noted in Brooklyn College:
The Year 2000 and Beyond (page 8), a "Multicultural
environment [should be viewed] as a springboard to a
global education." The following activities will
be implemented:
1.
Restructuring of science, mathematics, and other courses
to broaden the focus and to integrate the constructs
of class, race, gender and gender orientation, and diverse
cultural perspectives across the curriculum and throughout
the academic life of the college. (See, for example,
the Core 3 reader, People, Power, Politics, as
a model product of this type of effort.)
2.
Facilitation of innovative departmental collaborations
for shared courses and faculty as a way to encourage
diversity.
3.
Creation of an Asian American studies component to address
underrepresentation in the curriculum.
4.
Enhancement of ethnic and women's studies programs with
incentives that encourage and facilitate interdepartmental
collaboration.
5.
Enhancement of bilingual education efforts, recognizing
that linguistic diversity plays a significant role on
campus.
6.
Promotion of Community Service Internships across the
curriculum as a key link between campus and community
diversity and interaction.
Resources
The
college must reexamine the budget and resource allocation
process and priorities in the light of the diversity
imperative. Planning and Budget Committee decisions
should, as a matter of course, demonstrate that diversity
has been taken into account when making resource allocations.
1.
The college should undertake a major capital campaign
to secure unrestricted funds for the support of diversity
and other projects (see, for example, the Rutgers $5.5
million "Campaign for Community, Diversity, and
Educational Excellence").
2.
In addition, the college should actively pursue grants
and endowments that can be targeted for visiting professorships,
postdoctoral fellowships, and exchange programs involving
underrepresented populations.
It
is anticipated that this Diversity Plan will undergo
modification as warranted by experience and assessment
of implementation strategies; annual presidential progress
evaluations; a heightened awareness of diversity in
resource allocation, curriculum development, student
life, governance, and faculty and staff composition;
and the strengthening of ties with the community.
For
additional information, contact:
Office of Affirmative Action, Compliance, and Diversity
Brooklyn College
2147 Boylan Hall
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Telephone: (718) 951-4128
Fax: (718) 951-4109
|
