The Chancellor’s Task Force on Diversity is steps away from determining the state of diversity on campus and submitting a report to Chancellor James Moeser before the semester’s end.
The task force met Wednesday to review a preliminary draft of the report that it hopes to have completed and brought before the chancellor by the end of this month.
“I think we’ve come an enormous way to be this far,” law professor Charles Daye said of the task force that met for the first time last fall.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the group discussed changes that should be made to the document, which will be compiled by a professional writer and circulated once again for final approval from the committee.
The group viewed a first draft of the report and brainstormed a variety of ideas for the final copy.
Members debated a number of recommendations to determine how specific each would be.
The process is a long one because they want to be sure that the final report reflects the feelings of the 38-member task force, said Archie Ervin, director of the Office for Minority Affairs.
In December, the task force developed five core values — vision and commitment to diversity, the presence of diversity, educational benefits of diversity, responsible interactions and a supportive climate — to guide them throughout the process.
At the beginning of this semester, a survey sent to students, faculty and staff inquired about their views of diversity on campus. The Office of Institutional Research used a variety of methods such as questionnaires, focus groups and interviews in hopes of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the issue.
