College Trustees Approve Diversity Initiatives

During its February meeting on campus, the Ithaca College Board of Trustees approved a series of initiatives designed to increase diversity at the College. The measures include a new tenure-track faculty position, a visiting scholar program, a summer multicultural teaching fellows program, and a center for ethnicity, race, and culture studies.

"We will invite proposals from every academic department on campus for the faculty position," says Jim Malek, provost and vice president for academic affairs. "This is just the first step in a three- to five-year process, through which we hope to add one new position each year."

Malek says that the intent is to increase the presence of African American and Latino faculty and that making available full-time tenure-track positions will have the greatest impact in the long run. "One of the priorities that came out of the strategic planning process was the widespread institutional agreement that there is a need to increase diversity. Doing so is sound educationally, by exposing students to a broader range of cultures, perspectives, and points of view, and also contributes to the well-being of the larger society by providing opportunities to those who might otherwise have difficulty gaining access."

The visiting scholar program will also not be limited to a particular discipline, but rather rotate from year to year among the schools and departments. The scholars will serve a semester-long residency, teaching courses and giving public lectures so as many people as possible at the College and in the community can profit from their expertise.

The summer program is one component of the College’s overall plan to recruit and retain underrepresented faculty, by providing students approaching completion of advanced degrees with the opportunity to teach a course here during the summer. It is hoped that the relationship established between the College and the fellows can help make Ithaca a more viable option for the fellows’ future employment plans.

"The program allows the fellows the opportunity to assess the climate of Ithaca College and the greater Ithaca community while gaining valuable teaching experience," says Michael Powell, assistant College counsel and affirmative action officer. "The College benefits as a result of a more attractive and diverse range of summer session curricular offerings, exposing the students to new topics and a more diverse faculty. Additionally, the summer fellows program will enhance the College’s national name recognition and visibility with respect to underrepresented-faculty initiatives."

The center for ethnicity, race, and culture will serve as a multidisciplinary clearinghouse for study in those areas. Its focus will be primarily but not exclusively on the experiences of groups that traditionally have been marginalized, underrepre-sented, or misrepresented in the United States as well as in college curricula.

"In the first year I expect it will function mostly to raise awareness of multicultural and international issues, by sponsoring lectures, colloquia, and other programs that the steering committee deems appropriate," says Malek. "Down the road it may have joint faculty appointments with regular academic units. This will be a College-wide effort."

The College’s strategic planning effort was also on the agenda for board members, who took part in a roundtable discussion sponsored by the All-College Planning and Priorities Committee. The committee will review the feedback from the trustees and from the five other roundtable sessions held with the campus community earlier in the month, and then move to establish working groups to further develop priorities.

During their time on campus the trustees also attended a special showcase production by students and faculty in the Department of Theatre Arts; held a reception for members of the Faculty Council, Staff Council, and Student Government Association; and toured the new health sciences facility.