Institutional Diversity Task Force: Committee Charge

TO: The University Community

FROM: Robert Niehoff, S.J., President

DATE: July 9, 2008

RE: Diversity Task Force

I would like to take this opportunity to announce the formation of a Task Force on Diversity for 2008-2009. This group will represent the entire institution and will convene when the 2008-2009 academic year begins. This is an ideal time to ask such a group to advance the efforts of so many across campus as we seek to make our campus more inclusive.

Numerous groups and initiatives have developed in the recent past all of which are committed to strengthening the working and learning environment in ways that are cognizant of aspects of diversity including the Faculty of Color Organization, the Women’s Faculty Caucus, the Student Diversity Initiative Task Force, and the Faculty Council Committee on Gender and Diversity. This commitment to diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism is described in the February 2008 presidential memo as well as the Vision, Mission, Core Values, and Strategic Initiatives Statement. The task force will make recommendations to me on ways the university can best coordinate the commitment to diversity, inclusion, and multiculturalism.

The task force will gather information about current university efforts related to diversity with the goal of identifying areas of strength, areas for improvement and ways to minimize duplication of effort. Based on the information gathered, they will make recommendations to the President by May of 2009. These recommendations may include:

• How to foster a culture for a community of inclusion;
• Steps to improve the experience of students, faculty, staff and administrators (particularly those from historically underrepresented populations);
• An institutional structure that would serve the strategic implementation of a diversity agenda in order to institutionalize the commitment to diversity;
• And any other recommendations resulting from their fact-finding initiatives.
  

The working group will work with the President and other institutional leaders to identify the appropriate data and methods to utilize in order to evaluate and possibly implement these recommendations.

I have asked Walter Simmons, chair of the Economics and Finance Department and Lauren Bowen, Associate Academic Vice President for Academic Programs and Faculty Diversity to chair this effort and they have agreed. Additional members include:

Donna Byrnes, Associate Dean of Students
Laiteisha Dobbins, Alumna
Janetta Hammock, Director, Office of Multicultural Affairs
Fr. Francis Ryan, S.J., Chair and Assistant Professor of the English Department
Shirley Seaton, Community Liaison
Steve Vitatoe, Director of Enrollment Operations
Allison West, Coordinator of the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities
Bud Stuppy, Incoming Director of the Office of Human Resources
A Student Member to be appointed
A Member of the Faculty Council Committee of Gender and Diversity to be appointed
Additional faculty members: one to represent FOCO and one to represent the Women’s Caucus also to be appointed

Please lend your support to them as they seek to engage the campus community in a conversation about diversity at John Carroll. We can all look forward to hearing their report and recommendations in the spring of 2009.