UW-Madison faculty, staff and students discussed ways to move beyond Plan 2008, the campus' previous 10-year diversity plan, at the ninth annual Diversity Forum at Memorial Union Tuesday.
The forum focused on how to create a welcoming, respectful and empowered community for the future.
The daylong forum brought together many campus administrators, including College of Letters & Science Dean Gary Sandefur, Wisconsin Union Director Mark Guthier and provost Pat Farrell, who introduced the forum's keynote speaker, Duke University professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva.
If you care to look back 10 years or more, [we've made] really significant strides in diversity of the student body, staff, faculty '¦ that impact the lives and success of the people who come to this campus,"" Farrell said, admitting the campus community is not ideal.
""I can't say that we have always been able to alter the climate as much as we would like. Success doesn't just happen in this field; it happens because people put a lot of energy into making it happen.""
Bonilla-Silva said minority students across the nation still encounter a hostile climate on campus.
""[Today's students] still complain about things we complained about 20 years ago ... the limited number of students, faculty and staff of color, as well as a hostile climate, limited support from staff and a curriculum that is not multicultural and relevant,"" he said.
Bonilla-Silva reinforced the importance of student involvement in creating a desired community for the future.
""[It] will not be the result of good deeds of enlightened administrators '¦ White students should work alongside minority groups to recast the diversity efforts in Wisconsin,"" he said.
Teri Balser and Sarah Pfatteicher, co-chairs of a campus reaccreditation team, led one of many breakout sessions to discuss ideas to improve campus diversity.
Pfatteicher said she thinks activities need to be encouraged for UW-Madison staff and students to build a welcoming community. She also said faculty need to go beyond their job descriptions to achieve diversity.
In addressing Plan 2008, Chancellor Biddy Martin said she is too new to comment on how to specifically improve future programs.
""I am just at the point of learning what worked and what didn't work [in Plan 2008],"" she said.
Martin stressed the university's role in promoting a welcoming community to achieve diversity throughout the campus.
""If we don't acquire departments and programs that build pools of possible candidates in advance, I don't think that diversification will actually happen,"" she said. ""[Diversity] is often made to seem like an institutional burden rather than an opportunity to be alive to the world, which is how I think about it.""
Martin said the word ""diversity"" is overused and is now academically uninteresting.
""[This] results partly from a gap between administrative commitments and processes on one hand and faculty, staff and student expertise on the other,"" she said. ""The integration of these things is absolutely essential.
