Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll speaks to attendees at the Spring Forum.

Last Thursday, more than 150 staff and faculty attended the diversity symposium and luncheon hosted by the Center for Faculty Development at St. Cajetan’s Center. The symposium was the keynote event of the daylong Spring Forum.

Featured speakers at “The Path to Inclusive Excellence: A Panel Discussion to Explore Inclusive Excellence Within Higher Education” offered definitions, benefits, barriers, stages and scorecard guidelines for “inclusive excellence."

The initiative, supported by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, aspires to help colleges and universities fully integrate their diversity and educational quality efforts and embed them into the core of academic mission and institutional functioning.

More than 150 faculty and staff attended the inclusive excellence symposium.

Speakers included Frank Tuitt, assistant professor and chair of the Higher Education Program at the University of Denver; Kee Warner, associate vice chancellor for diversity at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; and Colorado Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll.

To kick off the symposium, Interim Associate to the President for Diversity Myron Anderson announced Metro State’s Campus Climate Survey and ran a video from President Stephen Jordan about the importance of the survey. Warner commended Metro State’s upcoming survey, saying, “There needs to be a mechanical vehicle you use to get things started to find what the climate is for your campus. It requires active engagement among all members of the college community. It is not just a concern for one group.”

Warner added that hiring a chief diversity officer, while going in the right direction, is only a start.

Carroll echoed the sentiment. “A lot of people think that by hiring a vice president of diversity you change the dynamic, but if that person doesn’t have control, it’s for aesthetics. It’s a place holder.”

According to Tuitt, a co-editor and contributing author of the book Race and Higher Education: Rethinking Pedagogy in Diverse College Classrooms, institutions need to start closing those gaps related to salary and achievements. “There has been a disconnect between diversity and educational excellence, demographic shifts on campus, and shifting policies and laws for affirmative action.”

(l-r) Kee Warner and Frank Tuitt were featured speakers at the symposium.

In addition, he said, institutions can gauge if they are on the right track if they have two-way communications and have a mechanism in place to respond to conflict.

When it comes to scorecards, Tuitt says institutions need to ask themselves: “Are people experiencing classes differently based on cultural background? Are we preparing for a global society?”