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Diversity Plan:
2003 - 2005
Much of the work of the Provost's Office is to articulate
a philosophy and set a direction and tone as we imagine possibilities
for academic excellence and build a university of inclusiveness,
reflection, and action. Past efforts include speaking and
writing about diversity, and fostering, facilitating, and
funding activities directed toward understanding diversity.
Specific actions include letters to the faculty; opinion pieces
in local newspapers; speeches, including addressing the relationship
between academic freedom and academic responsibility in the
context of a welcoming environment for learning; development
of an opportunity hire policy; the 2001-2002 Convocation;
and support for workshops on pedagogy related to diversity.
Under the four revised goals for 2003-2006, we need to deepen
our understanding of diversity, including how to address unintended
effects of good faith efforts to speak to issues of diversity.
For instance, how does the University struggle to learn from
people whose experiences differ with academic traditions or
practices, as in peer review for faculty members? In other
words, whether framing a welcoming environment for learning,
shaping a curriculum for effective learning, recruiting and
retaining students, or building a responsive and representative
faculty, we face two issues. We must continue to enhance our
understanding of the educational value of diversity. But we
must also continue to engage constructively the educational
challenge of diversity to normative traditions and practices.
The Office of the Provost will work to achieve the revised
goals by linking explicitly the educational value of diversity
and the educational challenge of diversity with achieving
the goals of The USM Plan: Achieving National Recognition
for Regional Excellence. In particular, the Office will link
diversity issues to:
- Actively embrace and support a highly regarded and enduring
community of intellectual inquiry and learning.
- Deepen and enrich the organizational culture in support
of inquiry and learning.
- Build a responsive and coherent curriculum aimed at student
success and regional needs.
- Mobilize institutional resources in an innovative fashion
through a more inclusive budget process leading to a clear
alignment of budgets with plans and priorities.
GOAL I: Climate
USM continuously strives to make the campus a welcoming
climate inclusive in its understanding and integration across
multiple dimensions of diversity, including but not limited
to, diversity based on race and ethnicity, gender, disability,
sexual orientation, age, gender expression and identity, religion,
and class.
The Office of the Provost will use the imprimatur of the
office to:
- Articulate widely and in multiple forums a philosophy
of critical multiculturalism, which expands our understanding
of diversity and the unintended consequences of efforts
to differentiate the identity of others (thereby naturalizing,
and privileging, the dominant culture as normative), while
still preserving the University's long-standing commitment
to attend to race and ethnicity.
- Work to resolve differences between normative institutional
traditions and practices and the increasingly different
experiences and expectations of the students, staff, faculty,
and community members whose interaction around learning
forms the University.
- Model effective valuing of diversity in the actions of
the office and through communication with faculty members,
staff, students and community members.
- Model effective responses to the challenges of diversity
in the actions of the office and through communication with
faculty members, staff, students, and community members.
The Office of the Provost will also use the resources of
the office to:
- Foster, facilitate, or fund an expanded array of lectures,
seminars, colloquia, and workshops for all faculty focused
on building a welcoming climate, including through the Sampson
Center on Diversity and the work of the various schools
and colleges.
- Provide opportunities for community building and social
interaction among faculty of color and underrepresented
populations, as well as between these groups and representatives
of the larger faculty, staff, student body, or community.
Assessment: Success will be measured by
increased perception by faculty and staff, students, and community
members that the University is a safe and welcoming learning
environment, based on surveys and focus groups.
GOAL II: Academic Experience
The USM academic experience, which includes both
curricular and co-curricular activities, will increasingly
reflect the multiplicity and diversity of communities and
cultures locally, nationally, and globally.
The Office of the Provost will use the imprimatur of the
office to:
- Encourage development of courses in general education,
including in Core, the Honors Program, and the Russell Scholars
Program, which address explicitly shared cultural references
and living in a multicultural world.
- Encourage development of courses in each major as appropriate,
which address explicitly shared cultural references and
living in a multicultural world.
The Office of the Provost will also use the resources of
the office to:
- Foster, facilitate, or fund an expanded array of successful
instructional development lectures, seminars, colloquia,
and workshops for all faculty focused on building inclusive
courses and curriculum.
- Offer by the Provost in load at least every other year
a general education course on diversity and globalization.
Assessment: Success will be measured by
increased curricular attention to and learning effectiveness
in general education and major programs to issues of diversity
and multiculturalism.
GOAL III: Student Recruitment and Retention
USM strives to increase the diversity of its student
body through active outreach and recruitment. USM increasingly
works to develop structures and mechanisms that support the
retention of all students, particularly students of color
and other underrepresented populations.
The Office of the Provost will use the imprimatur of the
office to:
- Speak and write to the educational value of diversity
in recruiting students.
- Work to build a culture of advising for retaining students.
The Office of the Provost will also use the resources of
the office to:
- Speak and write about constructive responses to the challenges
faced by all students to an increasingly diverse student
body.
- Infuse academic units with support for effective advising.
- Support innovative courses and curricular developments
that address the value of diversity and constructive responses
to the challenge of diversity.
- Offer by the Provost in load at least every other year
a general education course on diversity and globalization.
Assessment: Success will be measured by
increased recruitment of students, particularly students of
color and other underrepresented populations; and by increased
retention of students, particularly students of color and
other underrepresented populations.
GOAL IV: Faculty and Staff
USM strives to increase the diversity of faculty
and staff, particularly faculty and staff of color, but inclusive
of other underrepresented populations as defined in Goal I.
The Office of the Provost will use the imprimatur of the
office to:
- Speak and write to the educational value of diversity
in recruiting faculty.
- Work to ensure that the University acts affirmatively
to build strong pools of highly qualified and diverse applicants
for faculty positions.
- Speak and write to the importance of sustaining a diverse
faculty body.
- Work to resolve differences between normative institutional
traditions and practices and the increasingly different
experiences and expectations of members of the University's
increasingly diverse faculty.
The Office of the Provost will also use the resources of
the office to:
- Foster, facilitate, or fund efforts to broaden and deepen
applicant pools.
- Provide opportunities for professional development for
faculty.
- Ensure mentoring of faculty leading to professional success
in all areas of faculty evaluation, including instruction,
scholarship, and university, professional, and community
service.
- Provide opportunities for community building and professional
interaction among faculty of color and underrepresented
populations, as well as between these groups and representatives
of the larger faculty.
Assessment: Success will be measured by
increased numbers and proportions of positive peer reviews
for appointment, reappointment, tenure, promotion, and satisfactory
and stellar post-tenure review.
The Provost's Office includes the following departments:
- Technology and Media Services
- Honors Program
- Graduate Studies
- Colleges and Schools
- University Libraries
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