Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2000)
OUS Budget continued from page 1 ture to support the planned improve ments in engineering. He said the drive to join the ranks of the top engi neering schools will take time, but it is an attainable goal. “This is a gradual process,” he Diversity continued from page 1 hind in offering a diverse learning environment. She said the Univer sity needs to examine successful di versity plans at other schools, in cluding the University of California, Santa Cruz, that deal with concepts such as privilege and correlating race and gender With economics and politics. “Santa Cruz is very similar to Eu gene in its student activism, and its population make-up is also very white,” Fuller said. “They’re deal ing with it effectively by educating and involving its general popula tion in these tough discussions.” Fuller was also critical of the cur rent University multicultural re quirements, which she said are vague and don’t completely expose students to multicultural issues. Anne Leavitt, associate vice pres ident for student affairs, said the curriculum has been strengthened with classes such as Judaic studies and ethnic studies. She added that professors and administrators re-ex amine course content to see if they are bringing multicultural perspec tives to the courses. “It’s one thing for faculty to hope they’re providing a substantial cur riculum, but if students aren’t expe riencing it, we need to know that,” Leavitt said. But Fuller said in order for classes to truly offer multicultural perspec tives, minority students and staff must be present, and so far this has n’t been the case at the University. “It’s one thing to know that there said. “It is something for all the insti tutions that will take time. There are no overwhelming sorts of impacts until we’re going into the second bi ennium or the third biennium.” Anderes said it will be up to the individual schools to raise the pri vate funding through donors, schol arships, tuition and fees, and re search grants. Computer and information sci ence department associate profes sor Virginia Lo said her department is “very excited about getting more resources from the state.” She said the department has al ready received a $1 million research grant from the National Science Foundation and a grant from Intel Corp. for more classes and a new lab in Klamath Hall. The grants will help fund the department’s work in studying how to ensure quality au dio and video broadcasts over the Internet, as well as its joint studies with the biology department in us ing the Internet to aid genetic re search. The most important impact of the investment plan, Lo said, is that it will provide the funds for desperately needed faculty. “We really need more faculty in our department because the de mand for computer science majors has just exploded,” she said. are diverse people in the world, but it’s something entirely different to actually have them sitting next to you in class and being able to social ly interact with them,” she said. “You have to have people here that live these issues day to day so that it’s not an abstract notion, but a liv ing experience.” Carla Gary, director and advocate of the Office of Multicultural Af fairs, said one of the most difficult parts of providing a diverse learning environment is approaching “dis comforting” race issues in class. She said that many students and faculty don’t want to talk about these top ics because they don’t know how to engage in that kind of conversation. “It’s not always the questions that are asked in class; it’s the questions that aren’t asked,” she said. “Skin privilege is still a trump card, and we have to be prepared to engage in real ly hard, hurtful dialogue. Getting out of our comfort zone is uncomfortable ... But if we allow students to gradu ate who are technically competent and culturally unconscious, we will have failed them.” The University’s diversity goals have included a focus on minority recruitment and retention. Accord ing to Leavitt, the administration is putting more than $1 million into scholarships specifically to en hance diversity and spending $500,000 in recruitment and reten tion activities for faculty of color. Taking the proactive approach But Fuller said that while recruit ment is extremely important, the climate needs to change before mi nority teachers and students will even want to be at the University. “It is about going out there and getting the students, but when you get to them, what are you going to tell them about the University of Oregon?” Fuller said. “How are you going to get them to leave their safe environment to come here?” Mark Tracy, assistant dean for di versity programs, came into his po sition last summer from Ohio. He agreed that the University atmos phere and reputation need to im prove before recruitment of minori ty staff and students will be successful.“I think traditionally, the University has not been an environ ment that has been 100 percent sup portive to students and faculty of color,” he said. “I haven’t been here that long, but from what I’ve learned, the University hasn’t done everything they need to do to keep that faculty here.” Tracy added that because of Ore gon’s general lack of diversity, the University is at a disadvantage be cause it has to compete with the more diverse cities nationally, where minority students are more likely to attend. He said that because of this, the University needs to take a proactive approach to recruiting and keeping minority faculty. Fuller also said that one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of moving forward is the average stu dent’s indifference to diversity. “I don’t think the average student thinks [diversity] is a priority, and that’s what I think is sad,” she said. “That’s again where I feel the Univer sity is a bit behind. If the issue is in visible, then it’s not an issue at all.” Tending to the goals Fuller added that if the administra tion created a fact sheet that stated goals and accomplishments more clearly, then the University’s progress would be more measurable. “I feel like the administration it self needs to show us what they’ve done in the last 25 years and what improvements they’ve made,” she said. “In my mind, visually there are some differences [because] the MCC exists and my position exists ... but it’s a minimal investment ... If the president would state ‘these are our goals, this is when they’re going to be done,’ then there’s some account ability there. We’d have concrete goals to work toward. ” Leavitt agreed with Fuller that if the administration documented all the steps that have been taken, their efforts would be more obvious to students and faculty. “From where I sit, in the last 17 years we’ve made so much progress in so many little ways. But students are only here for a few years, and they want to see change fast,” Leav itt said. Leavitt mentioned a few of the specific plans underway. The ad ministration will add an additional staff member to the Teaching Effec tiveness Program, which helps guide teachers to incorporate di verse perspectives in all subjects and classroom discussions. The ad ministration also plans to increase staffing support in the Office of Mul ticultural Affairs, establishing a President’s Planning Committee on the University Diversity Institute and creating the Bias Response Team, a group that provides support to students who have experienced bias because of race, ethnicity, sexu al orientation or any other quality that could single them out. Chicora Martin, who became the new director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisex ual, Transgender Educational and Support Services in August, said she believes that although a lot of work needs to be done, the adminis tration has been working in the right direction. She said the new Bias Re sponse Team is a good example of how the University is moving ahead and making changes. “The Bias Response Team is a part of a big policy step,” said Martin, who left Florida State University to work at the University of Oregon. “When people come into my office and ask what we’re doing, I can honestly tell them what our goals are and what we’re doing to make it real.” Leavitt said she recognized that although specific objectives are helpful in pushing the University forward in accomplishing its diver sity goals, these plans will never be completely finished. “I like Erica’s challenge to us, and I like the impatience our students have, because it makes us work harder,” she said. “I’ve heard Erica say that diversity isn’t something you pick up and put down — you have to live it. If we’re going to live it, we have to be challenged daily ... This diversity challenge is in front of us all the time, never allowing us to think we’ve gotten there because we always need to keep going.” FEia/ Ki DC G/LOM/s/G UP in 0 U/L LOtvefT'/K/COMf A/LEA f HAVE EvE/L HEA/LD OP A/V P/P fc/OLOGY CLAff. R-AY Chin fTAPTED 0n/E in /N/n/EP-'C/TY Lof /WcEi-Ef. IN ON/E YEAP-, HE COACHED 20 Of5 H/f 26 CTODEn/TC TO fCOP-E A ^ OP RETTEP- ON/ THE ExAm. We Weed Mo/^e Ray Chins. UVf -;£■*• «-N. H'C v\ ' t V.- t *.\ ‘1,'N THC rc tr, Lf‘ Clt T,1'\P'.\rJ *>\0 Cr.5f,; C-Fff-.vT < C : . f 'jF rA-A D - * T F . . .f a . . Ar a pf ... Aiy«. ff.v.iiT Tv\L ' fn, L TfAft. IN. Cv't AT ...V ' Mt,T N-ivDtt I. •: .2 i ' ! C < '•(. c.: V
