Date: February 16, 2005
To: UVM Community
From: Daniel Mark Fogel, President
A. John Bramley, Senior Vice President and Provost
Re: Advancing Diversity and Inclusion at UVM
We are writing to share with the University community our responses to important
recommendations submitted to us by the President’s Commissions on Racial
Diversity (PCRD), on the Status of Women (PCSW), and on Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual,
and Transgender Equity (PCLGBTE). We hold, with these Commissions and with the
Board of Trustees, that diversity and inclusion are inseparable from academic
excellence.
We recognize that diversity has many dimensions and that they are only partially detailed in the “Why Diversity” statement and resolution unanimously endorsed in November by the Trustees as including, “among other differences, those of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, socio-economic status, cultural and/or geographic background, religious belief, age, and disability.” Accordingly, in partial response to a recommendation from the Commission on LGBT Equity, we have determined that the prohibition of sex discrimination in the University’s policy on Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action will be interpreted to include gender identity and expression, and will be administered accordingly.
The President’s Commission on the Status of Women has completed a detailed, qualitative study of the campus climate for women and has made some specific recommendations arising from that study. In response to the recommendations, we are pleased to report that:
In addition, the Commission on the Status of Women has identified broad campus climate issues that we believe will become more amenable to mitigation through the extensive University Campus Climate Survey that has been initiated by the President’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion (PCDI) and that will be administered and analyzed this semester. Once that work is done, we will consult with all of the presidential commissions on any salient areas of concern and on steps to take to ameliorate them. (The PCDI is charged with addressing concerns and activities that span—and that go beyond—the specific areas of focus of each of the other presidential commissions).
About a year and a half ago (September 2003), we announced enthusiastic endorsement of five initiatives that came out of the deliberations of the PCRD: 1) the building of increasingly diverse pools of applicants for admission to the University’s degree programs; 2) the building of increasingly diverse pools of applicants for faculty and staff positions; 3) commitment to ensuring the retention of ALANA (African-American, Latino/a, Asian-American, and Native American) students, faculty, and staff at rates commensurate with those for non-ALANA students, faculty, and staff; 4) commitment to improving the campus climate for persons of color, including the climate survey referred to above; and 5) commitment to curricular initiatives that would ensure broad multicultural understanding and competencies for all of our baccalaureate students.
This academic year has seen significant progress in these undertakings. Enrollment of ALANA students is at an all-time high overall, and this fall the first-year undergraduate class was 7.7% students of color. The overall percentage of ALANA students rose to 6.7%, up from 4.75% in the fall of 2000 (representing a numerical increase from 481 to 728). As of last week, moreover, we had 1001 applications for first-year undergraduate admission from ALANA applicants, far more than ever before. At the same time, the faculty and staff of UVM are more diverse than ever, with ALANA faculty (both tenure-track and non-tenure-track) and staff at all-time highs: for example, tenure-track ALANA faculty this fall numbered 75, up from 52 in 1999, a 44% increase, with the increase of African-American tenure-track faculty over the same period at 100%, up from 8 to 16, while total ALANA faculty and staff went from 231 to 294, up 27%.
This fall, the Provost and the Faculty Senate implemented a process for development and Senate review of curricular innovations proposed by the Commission on Racial Diversity. Similarly, we have referred curricular proposals originating in the President’s Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Equity to the appropriate academic program and faculty review processes.
While we deeply appreciate the progress to date and the initiatives already under way, we recognize that a great deal remains to be done, and we have made a number of decisions and commitments in response to specific recommendations by the President’s Commission on Racial Diversity. We have decided to:
For the past year, the PCRD has been chaired by Professor Robert Lawson. We are very grateful to Professor Lawson and to all of his colleagues on the Commission for their ongoing work in pursuit of academic excellence and diversity at the University of Vermont. We are similarly grateful for the work of PCSW co-chairs Bridget Turner Kelly and Margaret Tamulonis and all of their colleagues, for the work of the members of the PCLGBTE, including its chair, David Nestor, and its acting chair Annie Stevens, and for the leadership of Kathryn Friedman and her colleagues on the PCDI in creating the campus climate survey, which we urge all members of the community to complete when it is administered later this semester. (For the complete membership of each of these presidential commis-sions, please see the left-hand sidebar links at http://www.uvm.edu/president/?Page=commissions/presidentialcommissions.html&SM=submenu5.html).
With respect to the initiatives, measures, and positions outlined in this memo, we welcome responses and suggestions from the entire campus community.
Last modified May 14 2006 03:40 PM
