Ideas from the Town Hall Meeting Held May 9, 2006

What are the most pressing needs in relation to inclusion and diversity?

• Need more students of color
• Comprehensive look at pipeline to college from middle and high school
• Students may not be prepared academically or financially
• Another group may arrive but doesn’t have the on-campus support mechanisms needed
• Need to highlight and coordinate TRIO, EOP, multicultural center
• More interaction with Linda Vista community – build on community and draw students and people from this community to Linda Vista, as well as bringing the community on-campus
• Need adequate support systems for retention – e.g., academic, mentors, tutoring.
• Students need to look at themselves as part of the process (in class, seminars, workshops):
• Everyone must look at self identity and privilege; need meaningful conversations about issues of class and privilege
• Bring in discussion on “white culture” – not to castigate, but to help people realize the dominance of white culture and how we may need to address inclusion issues so all cultures have access
• How much is “enough” diversity? Our goal has been “more” without defining our ideal or goal. We can look at comparative institutions or look at SD population and set our targets from external source. Or, perhaps we should base the ideal on the number that will achieve an inclusive learning environment.
• Critical mass – how does this change the learning dynamic? Critical mass allows more people to feel safe, valued, and respected because it’s more likely that there will be others who understand and speak more like you. Kind of a chicken or egg situation: how you get to critical mass when you don’t have the environment and people may not want to come?
• Include discussions of class. To what extent are groups ethnically based and socio-economically based effect campus climate? How much do the haves and have-nots affect the climate? How much should USD pay attention to socio-economic issues?

How are we going to address these needs?

• Recruitment of students
• Address financial aid needs for students of color
• Work with Admissions to increase diversity
• Package students with four years of financial aid (rather than 2) so that they don’t leave with huge debt.
• Identify how to use existing financial aid a targeted way (e.g., “Circle” scholars)
• would be helpful to have current students of color help recruit (e.g., campus tours, local college fairs) – having students there, showing the face of the institution, will help prospective students and parents see people like themselves in their initial point of contact.
• Retention of students/Climate
• Establish better mentor programs
• We are admitting more students of color, but they choose not to come – look at the competition with other institutions and “climate issues”
• Can bring more minorities – but won’t stay unless community accepts them in all aspects
• Need to determine extent to which isolation of groups might be self-perpetuating
• Students have to be involved, to set the tone; faculty for the most part accepts students’ diversity but students don’t always accept each other.
• Changing climate / critical mass: not just students who must address this - faculty can bring dialogue into classroom; get staff involved into conversation as well.
• Important to have people in positions of responsibility who are people of color (e.g., VP of SA, RAs, RDs….)
• All of this is do-able without a lot of change – example: talking about privilege can come from a white faculty member; need to educate the faculty so they can have this discussion in their classes
• Develop student communities of color (learning communities): establish smaller groups; dining halls – tables set aside to have discussions on inclusion and other issues; once a week; pull different people into discussion; designate different areas where the discussion begins (with students)
• Need to compensate or treat student recruiters appropriately – these students usually are working other jobs
• Must be a university effort to hire these students: best advocates, recruiters (more institutional support to make effective)
• Need to be very clear about current campus climate – students giving tour will be honest
• Recruitment of faculty: Need more faculty of color, staff of color. A student should be able to walk into a class and not know color of faculty (ahead of time)… not presume that faculty member will be Caucasian. We need enough diverse students, faculty and staff to get past this way of thinking.
• Consider goal of becoming an Hispanic Serving Institution; that USD would quality for more grants
• Misinformation widens the gap: some people think that people from “those communities” need the money – may not be true. Important to look at the data – need to decouple characteristics such as race, class, athletics, and academic ability. The CID web site could look at common myths and use the data to explain reality
• Use words such as “sex” and “gender” correctly and define broadly in relation to inclusion. What is wisdom of data categories/labels? Race/ethnicity/sex or race/ethnicity/gender? (Maybe CID can discuss this and make suggestions.)