Thomas Patterson Emerald
University President Dave Frohnmayer applauds during a speech by city manager Jim Johnson marking a new diversity agreement.
Agencies to collaborate
on diversity, human rights
■The University becomes part
j of a new group formed to look
at the county’s diversity efforts
By John Liebhardt
Oregon Daily Emerald
A human rights consortium
created Wednesday from nine
public agencies and the Universi
ty is formulating an action plan to
gauge Lane County’s efforts at fos
tering diversity.
Members of the 10 agencies of
ficially inaugurated the Diversity
and Human Rights Consortium as
a working group that will establish
a framework to share information
about diversity and respond col
lectively to incidents.
The agencies include: Bethel
Public School District 52, City of
Springfield, Eugene Public
School District 4J, Eugene Water
and Electric Board, Lane Com
munity College, Lane County,
Lane Transit District, Springfield
Public School District 19, City of
Eugene and the University.
DHRC will allow the 10 agencies
to officially collaborate on two
levels: Organizational leaders
will meet yearly, and so-called
“staffers,” those employees re
sponsible for human resources
and multicultural affairs within
each agency, will commit to reg
ular communication.
As the next order of business,
each agency will create an action
plan to establish goals, time frames
and evaluation tools. The Univer
sity has not yet begun work on the
action plan, but Linda King, the
University’s director of human re
sources, hopes to create a working
group during the spring term to be
gin the process. She does not have
a completion date.
“This commitment that we are
making is an attempt to say that we
are going to do something different
about diversity in this communi
ty,” said Jim Johnson, Eugene city
manager. Johnson likened DHRC
to the way governmental agencies
collaborate on any number of pub
lic policy issues, such as environ
mental and traffic issues.
Johnson said the action plans
would hold each organization ac
countable to fulfilling concrete
goals on diversity and awareness
of other cultures.
University President Dave
Frohnmayer said working as a
collective unit may better facili
tate diversity awareness around
the county.
“We can set an example of mak
ing a collective difference that is
much larger than the individual
parts,” he said.
Recruiting good candidates may
be the first tangible change from
DHRC, said William Van Vactor,
Lane County administrator.
Presently, each of the organiza
tions have trouble recruiting top
candidates because they cannot
find proper employment for a
“trailing spouse.” The cooperation
aspect of DHRC will change that.
“Virtually in terms of this doc
ument, Human Resource direc
tors can very comfortably call any
one of the eight other organiza
tions and say ‘We are working on
this key recruitment, and can you
help me with this trailing
spouse?’”
Jose Ortal, director of affirmative
action at LCC, feels that the real
progress will be found within the
new communication between
peers at various institutions.
“An organization like (the Uni
versity) is a big place,” he said.
“Getting staffers communicating
will help us create the synergy to
cooperate in the event a specific is
sue comes up.”
DHRC is not the first time Lane
County leaders have attempted to
collectively address diversity is
sues. Johnson said the first seri
ous attempt dates back to 1991
when the mayors of Eugene and
Springfield, along with city and
county commissioners, met to
discuss diversity issues and cre
ate a loose action plan. Most of
those actions did not stand the
test of time, Johnson said, and the
city of Eugene tried to pick the is
sue up again four years ago.
Those discussions led to the cre
ation of DHRC.
Knowing the track record of
such efforts, many signers ex
pressed satisfaction with DHRC’s
approach that contains both ideal
istic and pragmatic qualities.
“It is an excellent document,
while very symbolically important
with its statement of intent, is also
a very practical document,” said
Michael Kelly, Springfield city
manager.
E-mail community editor John Liebhardt
atjohnliebhardt@dailyemerald.com.
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