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March 3, 2003 (updated)
TO: Provost Division Employees
FROM: Barry P. Scherr
RE: Diversity Initiative - UPDATE
As you know, President Wright has identified enhancing the diversity and inclusiveness of this campus as an important component of his vision for Dartmouth. I am writing this letter to affirm President Wright's commitment and to outline my expectations for all departments and employees within the Provost Division going forward. The areas reporting to the Provost vary greatly in both size and purpose, but they are for the most part programs and academic support units that impact the entire institution or that cross over between the four schools (Arts and Sciences, Tuck, Thayer, and the Medical School) and other constituencies. Your departments are all critical areas of the institution and I hope that you will take the lead in setting the tone and helping this campus become more open and inclusive.
In his remarks at the Martin Luther King Day celebration last month, President Wright said, "The ability to work and live with people from backgrounds different from our own is a critical skill - but it is also one that we need to practice and work on." As members of this community, each of us makes a unique contribution to the mission of this institution every day, and we all bring some kind of diversity to our offices. The goal of this initiative is to acknowledge our differences, and to begin to talk about how those differences shape experiences in the workplace, satisfaction with our work, and our collective ability to achieve the goals and the mission of the College. When we reach beyond our individual borders and out of our comfort zones, we can strengthen familiar bonds and begin to develop valuable new connections.
Campus-wide Efforts
In July 2001, President Wright created the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity (ID&E) and appointed Ozzie Harris as the Special Assistant to the President and director of that office. Since that time, the campus has responded to the President's challenge in a variety of ways. To highlight a few:
- Last fall, the "Race Matters in the University of the 21st Century" conference was sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.
- Several programs were sponsored by ID&E, including the "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People" and Campus of Difference workshops and the Cornell Interactive Theater Ensemble performances.
- In the student life area, last summer Tommy Lee Woon was appointed as Associate Dean for Pluralism and Leadership.
Here in the Provost division, a Provost Division Diversity plan was developed last fall; it can be found in this section. The Provost Division Diversity Committee was also convened and much of last year was spent working with Deans and Directors to develop departmental diversity plans. Last September, Deans, Directors and members of the Diversity Committee all came together for a Leadership Retreat on Diversity to brainstorm, collaborate and further explore these issues.
While past diversity efforts on this campus have focused primarily on recruitment through the Affirmative Action Plan, this initiative's overall theme is to take the next step towards incorporating an awareness of diversity issues into the day-to-day policies and practices of each office, as well as to focus more deliberately on the experiences of all employees in our offices and departments. In my mind, this initiative differs from past diversity initiatives on campus in that we are asking all departments to share responsibility for its implementation, and asking all employees, regardless of level, to get involved as well.
Departmental Plans and Employee Involvement
At the beginning of last year, the Dean or Director of each department assumed responsibility for the creation of a departmental diversity plan. For some departments, this is not a new focus and this initiative has simply been an opportunity to continue an ongoing conversation. For others, this has marked the beginning of a continuing process. "How does diversity relate to my job or department?" is a question that has come up again and again over the past year. I hope that this letter, the recently updated Provost Office website and your department's diversity plan will begin to frame general responses to those questions. Specific answers will be different for each department, depending upon each office's mission/purpose, staff makeup, areas of expertise and work environment. And, as we go forward, the answers will continue to evolve.
With this in mind, I believe that it is important to incorporate specific goals and accountabilities into position descriptions in order to connect employees to diversity plans in a much more meaningful way. To that end, through your Dean/Director and your executive officer, I have asked supervisors within the division to revise all exempt and non-exempt position descriptions to include a commitment to diversity by June 30, 2003. These position description changes should directly connect to the goals outlined in the departmental diversity plans. There is a wide range of language that could be included, and we are relying on supervisors to discuss possible options and communicate their expectations to their staffs. (Sample language for different positions can be found at "Sample Position Description".) By the spring of 2004, we expect supervisors to include employee's participation in and support of each office's diversity plan in annual performance evaluations.
There has been some concern about how this particular part of the plan will be implemented, and my office will continue to do as much as possible to help facilitate this process. Over the past year, several workshops focusing on the conversion and revision of position descriptions have been offered for Provost Division staff by Human Resources (HR). We will continue to offer these workshops over the next year, and will also work with HR to develop additional workshops and distribute information that will support managers and supervisors as they work to achieve these goals.
Ongoing participation of all employees is important for the success of this initiative. We consider this initiative to be a work-in-progress; your input and feedback is welcomed and appreciated. On the next page, you will see a list of resources that are currently allocated to support this effort. Please contact your department's diversity committee representative (see attached list), your department head or supervisor, or the Provost Office directly with any questions, thoughts or suggestions that you may have. We look forward to beginning an informative and engaged dialogue with you.
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