Fostering Diversity Goals at Brown

by Brenda Allen, associate provost
and director of institutional diversity

Brown aspires to be a campus where faculty, students, and staff of diverse backgrounds, ideas, and opinions can interact effectively in an environment of mutual respect.

Creating this kind of community requires reflection, discussion and consultation, planning and action. Twice in the past two decades, the University has invited visiting committees to review the campus climate as it related to diversity. In 1985, a Visiting Committee on Minority Life and Education evaluated programs and recommended new strategies to improve the climate of race relations at the University. In 2000, a second visiting committee was invited to help the University forge its diversity agenda for the 21^st century. By embracing many of the recommendations of each committee, the University placed itself among the champions of diversity in higher education.

But Brown can do better. As part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, the University has set a goal of realizing the potential of diversity, in its broadest sense, and to make diversity an even more integral part of our educational environment.

To fulfill this important objective, my office has drafted an action plan that is designed to help position the University as a national example of how to fully integrate diversity into the core operations of an institution. The plan, which has been submitted to senior administrators for their comments, has ten major objectives designed to address diversity in relation to other core priorities at Brown. These objectives arose out of consultations with representatives of Brown's diverse populations, and were informed by the challenges posed by previous visiting committees. The plan identifies the senior officers who will be responsible for meeting each of the objectives, as well as their specific charges, and establishes expectations and timelines for achieving the goals. They include:

• establishing leadership and responsibility for fostering diversity goals at Brown;
• increasing the diversity of the faculty through targeted and aggressive recruitment strategies and innovative retention programs;
• addressing diversity among undergraduate students, reviewing retention data, and increasing financial aid for transfer and RUE students;
• improving recruitment and retention of graduate and medical students from underrepresented backgrounds;
• increasing the diversity of staff in areas of continued concern;
• addressing issues of diversity within the curriculum and in extracurricular programs;
• providing support for managing diversity among students, faculty, and staff.

Achieving these objectives will require the entire Brown community to act boldly. They will help ensure that we focus the resources needed to recruit and retain faculty, students, and staff who reflect the broadest range of ideas, opinions, and perspectives. We must constantly strive to create an environment at Brown where diversity can thrive. Such ambition requires strong leadership and accountability at multiple levels, and it will strengthen our University's tradition of academic excellence.

True intellectual diversity can be achieved through interaction among individuals from a diverse set of experiences, histories, and backgrounds. The approved plan, which will be shared with the University community this spring, offers the necessary steps toward a shared vision of diversity, pluralism, and community in which all perspectives can thrive.