Diversity initiative to launch campaign
Published March 14, 2007
MU is on a mission to become a more diverse campus by continuing to develop the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative.
The Chancellor's Diversity Initiative Office was created in December 2004 but has progressed slowly, Deputy Chancellor Michael Middleton said.
According to the MU diversity Web site, its mission is to develop, support and nurture programs that cultivate equity and inclusiveness in the MU campus community and to enhance the capacity of its students, faculty and staff to learn, teach and thrive in a diverse and cross-cultural environment.
The Chancellor's Diversity Initiative Office reports to Middleton, who is supposed to provide leadership, oversight and coordination of all campus diversity activities.
"Every office and all units are engaged in activity to promote diversity," Middleton said. "We created the CDI to convey the notion that the chancellor is at the top of the campus-wide development."
There have been numerous small-scale victories in the relatively short amount of time that has passed since the office was created.
Examples of these victories include a diversity summit, a five-hour workshop held Feb. 11 and the Difficult Dialogues Faculty Development Program.
The Difficult Dialogues program is in its second semester and it is anticipated that an expected growth from 30 people to 45 people will occur in the fall, Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington said.
The office has numerous people working toward the initiative's goal.
Rebecca Calvin is a marketing specialist and developer of the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative Web site. As a marketing specialist, she is expected to identify and promote any diversity-related projects and events.
Calvin said various diversity events have been found on the Web site in the past, including tracking of the National Socialist Movement march on Saturday.
Before becoming the initiative's director of diversity programming and professional development, Noor Azizan-Gardner worked for the Office of Minority Affairs, International Programs and Faculty Development.
Azizan-Gardner said Worthington was hired as an interim chief diversity officer in 2006 and Noel English joined in 2005 as a part-time equity director.
Worthington works with various student organizations, administrators, faculty and staff "to ensure that there is a positive campus climate that in inclusive and welcoming for all."
English works with people who have problems on campus such as discrimination, sexual harassment, disability and teachers who students believe say inappropriate things.
English said though she is always willing to help, MU community members don't know they can work with her.
This is a problem the initiative office looks to solve as it continues to grow.
"The nature of what we're doing is a long-term project," Middleton said. "It's going to take a great deal of time to change the culture on this campus."
When the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative gets a better foundation, the office will look at numerous ways to spread the word across campus through open houses, publications and other forms of communication. The office is planning to launch a communications campaign to inform students and others on campus about the diversity initiative.
Azizan-Gardner's department is inviting people to "create creative events to enhance their environments."
Students, high-level administrators, faculty and staff will continue to be the targets of the initiative office as it continues its ultimate goal.
"When we get to the point where our normal systems and normal way of interacting with others is such that there is no longer an issue, then we will have succeeded in creating a kind of campus that is welcoming and supportive of everyone that comes to it regardless of the things that get in the way of human beings having productive relationships," Middleton said.