OSU convenes Council on Diversity

A Council on Diversity has been convened at Ohio State to guide the University's diversity agenda.

Chaired by College of Nursing Dean Carole A. Anderson, the council is charged with advising the president and provost on implementation of the University's Diversity Action Plan (available on the Web at www.osu.edu/diversityplan).

"This is a defining moment for Ohio State in terms of demonstrating its depth and breadth of commitment to diversity," President William E. Kirwan said in announcing the council's establishment along with Executive Vice President and Provost Edward J. Ray. "The excellence we seek as a University is dependent upon our success in embracing diversity in all that we say and do."

Carole A. Anderson will chair the Council on Diversity

In overseeing and guiding the diversity agenda, the council will recognize that programming will take place throughout all offices, units and locations.

The group also is expected to:

• make recommendations that will enable the University to foster a campus climate of inclusion;

• solicit the views of the Ohio State community on all aspects of diversity;

• examine specific concerns advanced by minority advocates;

• identify potential new initiatives that will advance Ohio State's diversity goals; and

• report annually to the president and provost on the University's progress in achieving measurably greater diversity in institutional composition and in the richness of the educational environment.

In selecting inaugural members, administrators consulted widely to identify a group that is both richly diverse in the human and professional backgrounds and demonstrably committed to the goals of the Diversity Action Plan. A small number of additional appointments may be made to ensure that the council is adequately representative of the community or to provide additional specific expertise, if needed.

Establishment of the council was identified earlier this academic year by Kirwan and Ray as a key agenda item for the year. Anderson, who co-chaired the committee that produced the Diversity Action Plan, was asked in September to serve as chair of the council. She is working now to coordinate the first meeting.

Several other initiatives are in place that relate to recommendations made in the plan. Among them are the President and Provost's Diversity Lecture Series, which continues Jan. 11 with a 9 a.m. lecture titled "Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice" by author and educator Paul Kivel at the Fawcett Center; establishment of a multicultural center; the provision of seed funding for the creation of an Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in the Americas; a Feb. 23 event with cast members of the Lifetime network's "Any Day Now," a program confronting race relations (see details in a future onCampus); and the commitment of funding for numerous scholarships and programs designed to enhance Ohio State's diversity profile.

In addition, leaders of academic and vice presidential units have been asked to undertake a diversity project from the Diversity Action Plan, and administrators and units will be held accountable for implementing their plans and contributing to the University's progress toward its diversity goals.

Council on Diversity membership

• Aqdas Afzal, undergraduate student

• Carole A. Anderson (chair), dean, College of Nursing

• John D. Chovan, director of education technology, College of Education

• Patricia A. Cunningham, associate professor, Consumer and Textile Sciences

• Audeen W. Fentiman, associate dean, College of Engineering

• Leslie M. Fine, associate professor, Marketing

• Kim M. Foster, doctoral student, College of Education

• Judith B. Fountain, director, The Women's Place

• Timothy A. Gerber, professor, Music

• Claudio Gonzalez, professor, Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics

• Charles R. Hancock, professor, Teaching and Learning

• Janet E. Jackson, Columbus city attorney

• Valerie B. Lee, professor, English; chair, Women's Studies

• Jeanne C. McGuire, health physicist, Environmental Health and Safety

• Teresa Y. Morishita, associate professor, Veterinary Preventive Medicine

• Rebecca L. Parker, assistant vice president, Student Affairs; director, Ohio Union

• Elliot E. Slotnick, associate dean, Graduate School

• Mac A. Stewart, interim vice provost, Minority Affairs

• Lee C. Tashjian Jr., vice president, University Relations

• Douglas J. Whaley, professor, Law

Groups examine issues for women, minorities

Five work groups have been appointed to examine issues identified as most pressing by a recent report on the retention of women and minority faculty and staff at Ohio State. Each group is expected to submit a report to the provost by May 1.

The groups are assigned to study and develop options addressing the following topics: dispute resolution; faculty professional development plans; salary equity; being a family-friendly and work/life "employer of choice"; and minority faculty networking.

The groups have been appointed as a follow-up to the spring 2000 distribution of the SRI Report on Retention of Women and Minority Faculty and Staff at The Ohio State University. The offices of Academic Affairs and Human Resources commissioned the study, conducted by the consulting firm SRI International, in 1998 after the Council on Academic Excellence for Women recommended an external review be conducted to analyze the University climate for women and minorities.

The report identified a "cluster of fundamental issues" to be addressed Ñ among them, the appearance that salary differences exist in some areas among men, women and minorities. The report listed a number of other issues of concern and called for the University to act "in a timely and effective way if the climate for retention of women and minorities is to become more favorable."

In studying the University climate, SRI examined a five-year period from 1993 to 1998 in a sample of academic and administrative units. The report recommendations included:

• Establish mechanisms to closely review salary comparability for faculty and staff.

• Create an active, highly visible leadership position to deal with the wide range of diversity matters affecting faculty and staff.

• Promote dialogue concerning diversity issues across the entire faculty and staff.

• Establish new research undertakings that involve diverse sets of faculty members.

• Foster forums that facilitate networking among minority faculty across the entire OSU community.

• Establish individual professional development plans for faculty, and increase opportunities for personal and professional development for staff.

• Create a more parent-friendly organization.

"We want the University community to know that follow-up to the SRI report is under way. The input from these work groups, whose members are faculty, staff and administrators, will be a valuable component of the University's effort to create a more welcoming workplace environment," said Nancy M. Rudd, vice provost for academic policy and human resources.

The dispute resolution work group is expected to develop options for dispute/issue resolution for both faculty and staff, including salary equity appeals processes. Tenure and promotion matters will not be considered by the group because the Rules of the University Faculty govern those decisions and appeals. The group co-chairs are Shari Mickey-Boggs, director of consulting services in the Office of Human Resources, and Joseph Stulberg, professor of law.

The group on faculty professional development has been asked to fully consider the recommendation in the Commission on Faculty Development and Careers report (available on the Web at http://oaa.ohio-state.edu/speeches/comfacdevel.html) to establish a Universitywide program of faculty development planning and review. The group is asked to provide options for implementing the recommendation in light of the SRI report's support for establishment of individual professional development plans for faculty and feedback received from campus groups regarding this recommendation following dissemination of the commission's report last year. The group co-chairs are Rudd and Valerie Lee, professor of English and women's studies and chair of the Department of Women's Studies.

Options for effective definitions of salary equity, potential plans for systematic analysis of all faculty salaries by college, and plans for addressing staff salary equity are requested of the group examining salary equity among faculty and staff. Group co-chairs are Larry Lewellen, associate vice president for human resources, and Jacqueline Royster, professor of English and associate dean in the College of Humanities.

In light of SRI's recommendation that Ohio State become a more "family-friendly" employer, this work group will address work/life broadly for all while ensuring that family needs are considered, as well. Topics for consideration include policies, fringe benefits, flexibility of appointments and work, wellness and recreation, and other programs allowing faculty and staff to combine careers with pursuit of family and personal interests. The group, which will look at current applicable OSU and benchmark initiatives and assignments of responsibility, is co-chaired by Joseph Alutto, dean of the Fisher College of Business, and Judy Fountain, director of The Women's Place.

The group addressing minority faculty networking is expected to identify factors affecting the success of minority faculty networking programs and possibilities for specific programs that could be implemented. The group is co-chaired by Gregory Williams, dean of the College of Law, and Linda Bernhard, associate professor of women's studies and nursing.

An SRI report summary is on the Web at http://oaa.ohio-state.edu/speeches/srireport.html.

next page...