UMKC signs diversity agreement
Published May 1, 2007
College campuses across the country, including MU, have looked for ways to be more inclusive to different ethnic groups. Now, UM-Kansas City is releasing a statement to the community that states the university is making plans to become more diverse.
UMKC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the NAACP on April 20. The memorandum was signed a year after a series of meetings between the UMKC campus, the NAACP and the United States Department of Justice.
The memorandum states the university's need to improve diversity and what actions it will take to get more diversity on campus.
"Strategy should include a focus on the recruitment of minority students, financial assistance for these students who show exceptional academic promise or who need assistance to register or to continue their studies, review of admissions practices and a timeline for restructuring practices that do not support the recruitment goal," the memorandum states.
The process for creating the memorandum began after a survey commissioned by UMKC in October 2005 showed that UMKC had a problem with diversity on campus.
According to the presentation done by Shaun Harper, assistant professor and research associate at Pennsylvania State University, the focus groups showed high levels of black students as dissatisfied because of few campus events reflecting their culture, inequitable access to institutional resources and constant contention with race-based stereotypes, especially from faculty.
"Reportedly, I was the first to ask about the qualitative realities of their experience," Harper stated in his PowerPoint.
In a 2006 diversity survey, 59 percent of the participants felt UMKC lived up to its core value of diversity, inclusiveness and respect.
"We create a positive environment by recognizing and acknowledging personal biases and being responsible for positive change," according to the UMKC Diversity Statement.
Karen Dace, deputy chancellor for Diversity, Access and Equity, said she saw how committed UMKC was to fixing its problem by working with the NAACP.
"On both sides, there was a feeling of partnership and a willingness to come together and talk about important issues," Dace said. "The meetings were a collaboration and a partnership."
Dace said her involvement was making sure everything in the document would work for everyone, and she worked with people to meet deadline.
Harper said UMKC should focus on increasing faculty and curricular diversity, engaging diverse student populations and improving academic advising.
These plans are similar to what MU is hoping to accomplish with its own attempt to diversify the university.
Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington said the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative at MU has no new updates on its progress.
The initiative was formed in 2004 and aims to improve diversity on campus through hiring incentives for faculty and projects and programs for students.
The memorandum signed at UMKC was seen as taking a step toward building a more diverse campus in the future and gave optimism to those who were involved in the process.
"The atmosphere surrounding the MOU signing was one of hope," Dace said.