As part of the Associated Students of Madison’s Shared Governance Week of Action, a panel of University of Wisconsin-Madison campus leaders addressed diversity and climate issues Monday.
Panelists included Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Climate Damon Williams, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Joanne Berg, Deputy Athletic Director Sean Frazier, and Assistant Dean of Student Life and director of the LGBT Campus Center Gabe Javier.
Roughly 50 students attended the forum and directed the conversation with questions about recruitment and retention of targeted minorities, as well as campus climate and access to support systems.
Addressing the issue of student support, Berg said her department is working on embedding DARS reports into the UW CourseGuide to try to create a link between advising and curriculum.
A graduate student in attendance raised concern about campus efforts to reach out to graduate students on campus, expressing that most initiatives seem targeted toward undergraduates.
Williams said most campus climate initiatives are targeted to all students, not only undergraduates, adding that this issue would be tackled in the process of building the new campus-wide diversity plan, to be released at the end of the Spring 2013 semester.
When questioned about initiatives addressing the climate toward women on campus, panelists acknowledged there is no professionally staffed body responsible for these efforts—a fact which “stunned” Williams.
Berg suggested that women on campus mobilize and assume leadership roles surrounding the cause.
“If it’s not there, and there’s not someone pushing for it to be there, it probably won’t be there just because of the nature of resources,” said Berg.
