Recommendations to President Mary Lyons

Six recommendations have been identified by PABID to involve the President in a direct leadership role. They represent the culmination of one academic year’s work and are informed by a diverse student leadership on the University of San Diego campus.

1. PABID highly recommends the establishment a university community standard to make clear our commitment to inclusion and respect for diversity. It is our belief that this standard can be communicated through a clear hate crimes and bias incidents policy. Therefore, PABID asks the President to adopt and publicly support a comprehensive hate crimes policy at the beginning of the Fall 2008 semester.
2. PABID recommends that the President promote the values of inclusion and diversity by incorporating inclusion and diversity as a theme for the AY2008-2009 new student Convocation and other community gatherings slated for the year. For the AY2008-2009 PABID is planning the inclusion and diversity theme “On Our Campus” for which PABID is asking the President to incorporate into in her forthcoming Fall 2008 convocation address. Other examples include a slate of inclusion and diversity events for AY2008-2009 being developed by PABID from which the President may choose events to attend throughout the year. Examples of events include the Black Student Union’s talent night, the Gender Studies banquet, etc.
3. It is the belief of PABID that in order to achieve our enrollment and retention goals with regards to diversity (33% of the incoming class by 2012), additional financial resources will be needed. Therefore, PABID asks the President to launch a fundraising campaign, with the help from the Development Office and the Enrollment Management team, with the overall objective to raise additional financial aid dollars used to increase the recruitment and retention of a diverse undergraduate student body. Starting with FY2009, we would like to establish an initial goal of $1 million per year for five years. One million dollars per year allows us to use $250,000 per year for four years, ensuring a steady source of funding throughout a student’s time here. Examples of how this could be used include:
   1. Expanding the COE scholarships by meeting cost of attendance vs. full tuition. This is approximately $13,000 per student each year
   2. Meeting 100% of need for high achieving students. This could cost approximately $15,000 per student each year
   3. Providing additional support for returning students as family circumstances change
   Because we believe this is such a high priority, we also recommend creating a new position in the Development area whose sole focus is to raise scholarship monies to attract and retain a larger yield of diverse students. The cost of this position will need to be established in conjunction with the VP for Development and take into account competitive salary and benefits.
4. In addition to recruiting and retaining students with diverse backgrounds, PABID requests a solid commitment be made to hiring diverse faculty, staff, and administrators. Therefore, PABID asks the President to support and advocate, upon recommendation of faculty and approval by Vice Presidents and Deans, efforts to increase the number of minority hires across the campus. PABID believes this recommendation can be accomplished by expanding the job description of the newly established Minority Affairs Officer in Human Resources, to include diversity training of USD faculty and staff, who in turn would serve on search committees with the charge of advocating the increase in number of diverse faculty, staff, and administrators at USD with concentration on groups that are currently underrepresented. Currently, 19.6% of all faculty, 19.3% of all administrators, and 42.8% of non-administrative staff are designated as minorities. Overall, 34.6% of all employees at the University are minorities.
5. In the new SOLES building, one is visually reminded of the many voices, opinions, and philosophies that helped shape the disciplines of education and leadership. PABID suggests that additional visual expressions in the spirit of diversity be replicated across campus and toward that end, that the University of San Diego establish prominent spaces, both fixed and rotating, for students to display and express such sentiments reflecting a university community that welcomes and embraces the diversity of its campus citizens. PABID asks the President to support this idea by bringing together Institutional Design, the Campus Master Plan Committee, Space Committee, and the committee for the new Student Life Pavilion with PABID to draft a plan for identifying current and future spaces that will embrace this spirit of diversity.
6. PABID recognizes that reaching out to the broader community will require many voices, both on and off campus. PABID asks the President to establish a community relations council with representatives from different ethnic and religious groups from campus as well as members of the community at large for the purpose of increasing dialogue, fostering relationships, establishing partnerships, and planning diversity activities with both short-term and long-term objectives. Examples of such groups include the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, NAACP, Urban League of San Diego, Filipino Chamber of Commerce, women's groups, Gay & Lesbian Center, local American Indian tribes, and the Linda Vista Civic Association to help establish recruitment and scholarship programs.

The following recommendations have been identified by PABID which seek the support of the President. All of the items below will serve to shape and inform a five-year strategic plan for diversity and inclusion to be finalized during the AY2008-09.

Admissions/Recruitment

1. The Undergraduate Admissions office will hire a new Assistant Director for Minority Recruitment
2. Each year, Admissions will prepare an annual Diversity Report as part of the Recruitment Plan. This report will:
1. Monitor progress toward our Enrollment Goals
2. Share statistics and data
3. List a summary of recruitment activities
3. Working with IT, Media Relations, and University Marketing, the Admissions web page and new student portal will be enhanced to better reflect diversity efforts, statistics, student/faculty profiles, and links to PABID activities
4. Commit to the College Board Compact (more information to follow)
5. Recruit more current students to participate in a Student Ambassador program

Academic

1. Coordinate activities with existing groups such as FYE/SYE, Torero Days and others to facilitate more involvement between students, faculty, and administrators
2. Develop a proposal to be presented to Academic Affairs and other relevant committees to establish an exchange program with HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and/or other schools
3. Develop a proposal to be presented to Academic Affairs and appropriate committees to explore expanding the “D” requirement
4. Support and expand the CEE workshops related to working with students of color (advising, for example)

Student Life

1. Plan an event to include the President for multicultural student leaders
2. Review and approve hate crime/bias incidents policy. Coordinate the effective distribution and promotion of the policy across the campus
3. Explore the feasibility of conducting exit interviews for students who choose to leave (who conducts, what is the interview format, who collects the data, etc.; to be determined over the course of the next year)

Campus Climate

1. Establish a formal plan for the “On Our Campus” project and begin work in Spring 2008
2. Create “affinity groups” for various populations (faculty, students, staff) and schedule meetings and events
3. Reinforce campus commitment to inclusion during new employee orientation
4. Work with Student Affairs to explore the feasibility of a “New Student Pledge” of inclusion

Safety

1. Meet with Public Safety to review and address student concerns as presented in the Wake Up document and PABID subcommittee

Community

1. Develop mentoring programs for USD students with staff/faculty and alumni
2. Identify and implement additional service opportunities for students/staff that serve San Diego’s diverse communities
3. Hire a graduate assistant to update and monitor the “USD in the Community” web site developed by Public Affairs
4. Work with Athletics to expand service opportunities for student athletes
5. The hiring of a tribal liaison to work with the local American Indian Communities