June 12, 2004

By Kathleen Valenzi

Despite warnings that a tornado might be heading toward the University of Virginia late Friday afternoon, President John T. Casteen III and members of the Board of Visitors’ Special Committee on Diversity gave their complete attention — and full support — to a plan to establish a chief officer for diversity and equity and to develop bold initiatives that will quickly position U.Va. as a leader among public institutions in these areas.

The plan was presented to the president and the board at the board’s annual meeting by Angela M. Davis and Michael J. Smith, faculty members and co-chairs of the President’s Commission on Diversity and Equity. The commission had been formed last September with a charge that included studying the student experience at U.Va. and appraising the academic and social cultures as experienced at U.Va. — in both cases with special attention to the experiences unique or germane to women and minorities.

The commission was also charged with looking at best practices related to diversity and equity and with proposing policies and strategies for improving academic and employment opportunities for under-represented populations at U.Va.

The oral report presented by Davis and Smith on Friday was the first public announcement of the commission’s findings, and it kicked off a lively, thought-provoking discussion on the complex issues at hand.

In his opening remarks to the board members, Smith said, “we believe that only by embracing diversity in the global village of the 21st century can we hope to ‘cultivate’ and ‘improve’ our minds; the alternative is an increasingly irrelevant defensive crouch as the world moves on. We can and we must do better than ‘improve compliance with existing federal government regulations.’ This is not a bureaucratic task; this is a task of leadership and vision. We can lead in the study — and in the achievement — of genuine diversity in all components of our collective life.”

Acknowledging that the commission was formed in the “aftermath of several disheartening incidents of racial injustice and insensitivity on the grounds of the university,” and that “other commissions and task forces have worked in this vineyard before,” Davis stressed in her remarks that this time there would be results.

“We have no wish to write another well-crafted, well-meaning report to be added to the long history of such reports,” she said. Success in diversity and equity required that several key factors be in place, including a “commitment to change and success at the highest levels of University leadership,” which she said she believed existed in the president’s office and within the Board of Visitors.

Establishing a chief officer for diversity and equity

As both a reflection of that commitment, and in support of it, the commission’s “overarching recommendation” was the establishment of a chief officer for diversity and equity, who would report directly to the president and be accountable to both the president and the Board of Visitors for addressing issues of equity and diversity throughout the university, the co-chairs said.

“We need someone who wakes up thinking about this,” Smith said of the commission’s rationale for recommending the creation of the position. “We need someone to ask, ‘Are you doing it? Is it done?’”

In signifying his support for the idea, board member Terence P. Ross, of Washington, said the value of hiring a chief officer for diversity and equity was not just in that person’s ability to spearhead the university’s efforts, but also in that person’s ability to serve as a sustainable “repository” of U.Va.’s goals. “We need an institutional memory regarding diversity and equity” that extends beyond the term limits of individual members of the board, or the appointments of key administrators, he said.

Furthermore, the installment of a chief officer for diversity and equity was critical to “helping our students prepare for the world they’ll inherit,” added board member L.F. Payne, of Washington.

Casteen agreed, noting that money had been set aside in the budget to fund the position and an office for diversity and equity.

A call for bold initiatives and quick action

While board member John O. “Dubby” Wynne, of Norfolk, supported the creation of a chief diversity officer, he challenged the commission to think even bolder. He said experience has taught him that change in the areas of diversity and equity needed to come quickly. “Slow and steady progress can often lead to frustration. You need to develop “a couple of highly visible initiatives that people can get excited about.

“We came up with that kind of bold initiative in financial aid,” he said in a reference to Access UVa, the $16 million financial aid plan approved by the board in February to keep the cost of higher education affordable to all students. “How do we encourage change here? I mean, really encourage it?”

Warren M. Thompson, a board member from Herndon, Va., and chairman of the board’s Special Committee on Diversity, also favored quick, decisive movement. The need for a chief officer for diversity and equity who will drive the process is real, he said. “Without such a person in place, we need to ask ourselves, where will we be three years from now?”

In making his case, Thompson proceeded to ask the board several rhetorical questions: “What do we need to do to continue the momentum built up by this commission and sustain it until results are seen? Who has the time to take this on? Does our ‘CEO’ — John Casteen — have time to lead a $3 billion capital campaign, oversee the institution itself, and drive this process?”

Without a dedicated chief officer, Thompson said, “two years from now we’ll still be where we are now.” And maintaining the status quo, the commission co-chairs stressed and the board members concurred, was unacceptable.

On Saturday morning, the board closed its two-day meeting by passing a unanimous resolution that praised Casteen for his leadership on diversity issues, thanked the commission for its “work which clearly will be of lasting and important value to the University,” and encouraged it “to continue to be bold in its initiatives.”

Sampling of diversity and equity initiatives

Before concluding their presentation, Davis and Smith highlighted a few specific initiatives that were part of a “whole raft of ideas” they said had been generated by the commission’s four subcommittees and that they believed would “give this officer and office a good start.”

• Expand the first-year experience to provide residentially based Sustained Dialogue groups and open forums on topics of race and culture, as well as conversations on ethics, honor and integrity, and ethical decision-making. “In short, we’re recommending an integrated approach to all these topics that will include students, faculty and student facilitators,” Davis said.

• Create a Community Engagement Program that would provide students with opportunities and incentives to participate in specially designated academic and cultural programs, specific courses, service learning, and sustained community service. Participation in the program would be recognized through course credit as well as through a note in official transcripts, which would communicate to future graduate school programs and employers that the student has achieved competence in working with diverse groups of people.

• Develop a standard process for reporting incidents that violate principles of mutual respect. The system would not only acknowledge such incidents, but generate a transparent, fair and educational response to them in an effort to promote a positive environment for all members of the community.

• Develop and maintain student and faculty exchanges between the University of Virginia and historically black colleges and universities.

• Expand the scope of Equal Opportunity Program workshops and mandate participation in EOP workshops for all personnel involved in hiring — administrative staff as well as faculty.

The President’s Commission on Diversity and Equity will now begin the process of writing its full report, which will be presented to Casteen for consideration and action at the end of the summer.