Diversity Progress Report May 2005

Diversity Progress Report May 2005

It’s my pleasure to synopsize for the community the activities and progress of our diversity initiatives at CSS this past academic year. We have made notable changes and the entire community is to be thanked for their participation.

Increasing our diversity awareness this year meant learning more about ourselves, as well as others. Some of the training sessions centered on the findings of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). A sample group took the inventory at last fall’s Faculty/Staff Institute and the results were compiled into a group profile. We found that collectively we were in a stage referred to as ‘Minimization’, which is characterized by the tendency to feel that people from other cultures are pretty much like us. Our strength is that we recognize humanity in every person but our developmental task is to learn more about our own culture and avoid projecting it onto other people’s experience. Our consultant, Nehrwr Abdul-Wahid, recently informed the President’s Staff that we are moving through this stage and into ‘Acceptance’, which is characterized by recognition of the value of diversity and cultural differences. Our task now is to shift perspectives and begin to more frequently look at the world through the lens of different worldviews, while maintaining commitment to our values.

With the aid of a Bush Grant, the College faculty completed three 1.5 day sessions of first-of-its-kind diversity workshops, “Maximizing Students’ Success through Inclusive Learning Environments”, with more than 80% of the faculty participating. The workshops provide practical models, frames and tools to create a more inclusive learning environment where students can better reach their full potential. Various other departments (Food Service, Residential Life, Admissions) have also participated in formal training and we plan to continue these efforts into next year.

Diversity Committee members visited other campuses (UW-S and UM-Morris) to gather data on their organizational structures, programs and other diversity initiatives that we might learn from them. This past April, the multicultural programs’ staff of UM-Morris also came to CSS to share more of their expertise with us.

The Dignitas Program that will be implemented in the fall features multicultural curriculum transformations designed to help students learn through the eyes of diverse groups and increase social awareness.

Several diversity committee members and other interested persons have taken on team projects in support of intercultural sensitivity, including revamping our diversity web presence and expanding our knowledge base and training capabilities via completion of Diversity Perspectives workshops. We will soon have five staff members who have completed this ‘train-the-trainers’ program and who will provide CSS with a cohort of individuals to assist with our training efforts.

Another project team is exploring opportunities for bridge-building and networking with diverse populations, schools, service organizations, churches and minority businesses in the Duluth area.

Other outreach efforts include Dr. Goodwin’s recent visit to Tougaloo College in Mississippi where, in the campus chapel, all the major Civil Rights leaders (King, Bobby Kennedy and others) spoke at the pulpit. The visit may well yield opportunities for powerful exchanges between Tougaloo and CSS faculty and students. Closer to home, Dr. Goodwin and our diversity consultant, Nehrwr Abdul-Wahid, are working together with De LaSalle High School administration in Minneapolis to define a merit scholarship program for students of color to attend St. Scholastica.

Along those same lines, we have just received a $100,000 Otto Bremer scholarship grant for students of color in the health sciences. The grant covers four years and will help advance our efforts to diversify our student population. Thanks to the work of Janet Rosen, Candace Ginsberg and others who worked on this grant.

And we’ve begun to make not just anecdotal change but systems changes as well. For example, we have added staff to our efforts – creating the Multicultural Coordinator position held by Nicoshia Wynn - and this summer, we will be revamping the area in Tower Hall adjacent to the Security Office as a Multipurpose/Multicultural Resource Center designated for our growing and diverse student population.

Progress has been made in increasing our minority populations on campus. Our strategic plan states that by Fall, 2007, the college will increase the ethnic and racial diversity of employees from 3.3% to 8%. To date, our racial diversity stands at 5.1% (that’s 22 of 429 employees) and our ethnic diversity is 6.5% (28 of 429) which includes all foreign-born employees.

Our student diversity improvement is as follows:

The traditional undergraduate and graduate percent of change was up .9% from 2003-2004 to 2004-2005; that is, in the 03/04 academic year, we had an average of 2026 students and an average of 147 students of color, or 7.2%. The 04/05 academic year showed an average traditional grad and undergrad student population of 2191 with an average of 178 students of color or 8.1%. The ADEP numbers are slightly stronger; moving from an average of 9.8% students of color to 11%, for an increase of 1.2%.

This past spring, several students, faculty and staff came together on Community Day to share a diversity experience called Barnga, a simulation game of cultural clashes. Through the use of playing cards and a purposeful lack of communication, we discovered what happens when people are operating under different ‘rules’. To continue this kind of experiential learning, plans for the future include a series of workshops, forums and dialogues among the entire campus population.

So, as the year draws to a close, it is important to acknowledge the tremendous progress made, as well as the continuing momentum and energy needed to meet the future challenges.

Carol Paisley

Chair

Diversity Committee

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