UW-Madison Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer Damon Williams announced the university's plans to enhance campus diversity Thursday at the 2011 Diversity Forum.
Over 500 attendees listened to speakers, participated in forums and experienced spoken word performances at Union South's Varsity Hall throughout the day.
Williams unveiled plans for a number of campus diversity initiatives, including the Delta Project, a proposed ""diversity division"" and the Beyond the Game initiative.
The Delta Project, Williams said, is ""an innovative initiative"" designed to focus on ""eliminating grade disparities.""
The ""diversity division"" is a project still in development that seeks to tackle questions about diversity on campus.
""We know that we have to evolve to meet the standards of the world that we live in today and the type of diversity structure that we need to meet that commitment,"" Williams said.
Williams also highlighted an initiative to diversify UW-Madison faculty, including a database that will allow departments and units to more effectively target diverse audiences in personnel recruitment.
According to Williams, Beyond the Game encourages UW-Madison athletes to invest in careers beyond athletics, particularly African-American athletes, by strengthening athletic leadership programs and preparing athletes for ""the game beyond the field.""
The forum's keynote speaker, Dr. Pedro Noguera, highlighted concerns for the same demographic as he opened the forum, speaking on what Williams called ""the educational crisis involving males of color.""
Kaleem Caire, CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison, localized the issue by displaying gaps in college readiness and attrition in Madison school districts, where Caire said the disparity between white and non-white students is the highest in the nation for a school district Madison's size.
Breakout sessions later in the day assessed campus diversity goals for faculty involvement, higher education for undocumented students, LGBTQ concerns and the achievement gap.
At the forum's closing reception, UW-Madison's multicultural hip-hop and spoken word program, First Wave, took the stage.
The forum closed with words from former student representative Beth Huang.
""A student can graduate from UW-Madison without ever engaging in a critical discussion about issues of diversity, without ever questioning why they're here,""
Huang said, but added if that's the case, ""the university has failed in creating students that are culturally competent.""
Huang also called for a stronger ethnic studies requirement and better infrastructure for minority students to report incidents of race-related aggression.
""[Students] want to produce one cohort after another of culturally competent graduates,"" Huang said.
