Committee on Institutional Diversity and Equity Report - 6/01
In April 2000, Dartmouth's Board of Trustees affirmed their belief that diversity and internationalism are essential to the educational work of the College. (1) The Board charged the administration with responsibility for creating the World Cultures Initiative (WCI) committee to examine the educational environment of the campus and to suggest actions that Dartmouth could take to become a more inclusive, pluralistic and interactive learning community. The following report provides a record of the work and recommendations of the World Cultures Initiative Committee, since renamed the Committee on Institutional Diversity and Equity, over the 2000-01 academic year. (2)
The work of this committee has been based on the premise that the academic and social benefits of diversity are not in dispute, and that the College should pursue them as a matter of primary urgency (see Rationale below). The College's mission statement commits the College to "enriching the Dartmouth educational and social experience by attracting and retaining gifted and talented students, faculty and staff of diverse backgrounds, experiences, races, and economic circumstances." The committee has concluded that, although this form of enrichment has been pursued over the past thirty years at least, a serious and continuing gap exists between the College's stated commitment to diversity and the practical steps that have thus far been taken to achieve it. We therefore believe that the onus is now on the College to take further action commensurate with its stated diversity-goals. Accordingly, we believe that a boldly conceived, broadly instituted, and highly visible plan to increase diversity and create a community that embraces and celebrates diversity will be a crucial element in the College's continuing evolution.
To illustrate Dartmouth's immense potential for effecting ambitious transformations, we propose the analogy of the ways in which technology, especially in the use of computers, has been integrated into the life of the College. In the College, you will see students, faculty, and administrators—many of whom had originally responded reluctantly to the introduction of computers years ago—working comfortably and pleasurably with these machines. This did not happen by accident or overnight. Rather, it was the result of a broad, sustained, strategic initiative that required significant investments in infrastructure and personnel and that required both maintenance of basic operations and support for innovation. Grants are available to faculty and others to create new classroom uses of the World Wide Web and other technology. As new initiatives are planned, such as the proposed Center for Teaching and Learning, care is taken to craft connections to existing structures and programs such as the Libraries and Computing Services. Classrooms are being made over one by one to accommodate "smart" technologies. Inter-session courses are offered regularly to bring faculty and staff up to speed on new developments. Students receive financial aid adjustments to allow them to buy computers, and every new student is expected to have a computer and to engage fully with this technology. Indeed, the very first requirement of all students is to purchase a computer for use in their educational work. We are asking the reader to imagine what the campus might look like if an analogous set of strategic measures related to diversity existed.
Major recommendations, for which the rationales are provided in the report to follow, include the following:
- 1. Revise the College mission statement to state categorically that diversity (not merely an element of diversity) is a primary objective and core value of the college.
- 2. Appoint a high level officer, reporting to the President or Provost, to advise the President, Provost and other senior officers on matters related to diversity and equity and to oversee the implementation of adequately funded institutional diversity plans.
- 3. Create a Council on Diversity to establish specific goals, develop strategies, and guide and coordinate institutional progress.
Additional detailed recommendations are included in the body of this report.
( 1) Diversity is used in this report as a broadly inclusive term embracing race, ethnicity, religion, nation of origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, socio-economic status, work affiliation with the College, etc. Thus, we have incorporated international diversity as an important dimension of a more broadly inclusive concept.
( 2) The Committee took the unusual step of adopting a new name in May 2001, believing that the Committee on Institutional Diversity and Equity more accurately described its purpose. Members of the Committee believed that "world cultures" was an ambiguous phrase that was poorly understood. Some felt that the phrase implied a primary if not exclusive focus on internationalism, whereas our discussions included national origin and internationalism as important facets of a broader notion of diversity. The Committee used the WCI name through most of its work, believing that the title enjoyed widespread name recognition on campus. That turned out not to be the case, however, leading to the selection of a more descriptive name for the committee.
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