University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty, staff and students gathered Friday in Union South for the 2012 Diversity Forum where they began preliminary discussions of a new strategic diversity plan for the university.
The day began a welcome address from Interim Chancellor David Ward, who recounted the university’s history in creating an increasingly diverse educational environment throughout the past fifty years.
Ward encouraged attendees to look to this rich past in forming a future campus commitment to diversity.
“There are a set of commitments that have been made in the past, most of them have never completely fulfilled themselves but I think the energy that went into them moved us,” Ward said. “Not as far as we would wish but certainly much further than had we not had a certain flare or rhetorical commitment, something which labeled the issue of diversity and equity as a value deeply within the university.”
Ward cited cultural group recruitment and extensive advising services as university programs that have encouraged and will continue to encourage the growth of a diverse student body, but pointed out a need to better balance individual needs with collective needs in creating more equity in higher education.
Ward said he was pleased with the event’s turnout and felt it was the beginning of a renewed dialogue throughout all of campus on current diversity issues.
“I wish a very creative dialogue with perhaps some very deliberative outcomes that can allow this institution to keep the history of being committed to civil rights, being committed to cultural pluralism and now being committed to this center of equity which is even than either of those two ideas,” Ward said.
