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Office of Institutional Diversity awards grants, institutes other initiatives
Feb 20, 2008
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| Myron Anderson: Information gleaned from focus groups is being used in the development of the Strategic Plan’s fourth goal, Embrace and promote diversity. Photo by Johanna Snow. |
Metro State’s Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) has covered a lot of ground in its brief existence.
Instituted
in June 2006 by President Stephen Jordan as part of an overall
College-wide diversity initiative, the OID was initially headed by
Sallye McKee.
“Dr. McKee brought an ambitious vision for
the office,” says Assistant Professor of Teacher Education Myron
Anderson, who was named interim associate to the president for
diversity when McKee left for a similar position at CU-Boulder in
August 2007. “She is truly an expert in this field and did much
groundbreaking work during her time here.”
One of Anderson’s tasks since taking the office has been chairing the search committee for a permanent replacement. (See http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/
artman/publish/search_twv5021308.shtml for more on the search.)
“We
have received (applications from) some excellent candidates at this
time and are looking forward to recommending finalists,” Anderson said.
According
to Anderson, the office addresses six program areas: campus climate,
equity scorecard, diversity development, diversity initiatives funding,
civic engagement, and recruitment and retention. The office has been
particularly active in the area of Diversity Initiatives funding.
Diversity Initiative awards
Under
this program, the office has distributed funds for projects that
promote diversity at the College. Awards of up to $5,000 are given to
Metro State faculty and staff for programs that address one or more of
the following:
• Recruitment of under-represented students
• Retention of under-represented students
• Addressing or improving campus climate
• Fostering social awareness of diversity issues
• Activities to achieve the president’s goals on institutional diversity
• Cultural or academic enrichment of students, faculty, staff or campus community
• Increasing multi-cultural competencies
More
than 40 grants have been awarded under the program to date, for
projects ranging from the Rachel B. Noel and Richard T. Castro
Distinguished Visiting Professorships to conferences, including the
2007 MEChA conference and a psychology conference titled, “An
Intersection of Multicultural Identities: A Personal Journey.”
“The
Office of Institutional Diversity can’t fully fund these initiatives,”
says Anderson, “but we do contribute to their funding, as they play an
important role in promoting diversity on campus.”
Other initiatives
The office has also launched a Web site (http://www.mscd.edu/president/diversity/)
to serve as “an interactive platform for diversity; a gathering place
that serves as a resource to the Metro State community,” says Anderson.
Application materials for diversity initiatives funding can also be
found on the Web site.
In addition, Anderson convened focus groups in the fall to address what diversity means to faculty and staff.
“The
information we gathered from the focus groups is informing our work in
developing goal four of the College’s Strategic Plan,” says Anderson,
“which is ‘to embrace and promote diversity.’
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