AMHERST – University of Massachusetts Amherst administrators gave an update Wednesday on the school’s diversity plan, which most recently includes efforts to develop a campuswide climate survey.
Wednesday’s session was the last in a series of forums on diversity, equity and inclusion held during this academic year. They were first scheduled in response to student requests, especially from the Black Student Union and Student Bridges, a group that aims to increase college access for underrepresented students, according to Shelly Perdomo, interim assistant vice chancellor for advocacy, inclusion and support programs.
Perdomo, who also chairs the chancellor’s Diversity Strategic Planning Steering Committee, described that group’s efforts to carry out the diversity plan which was completed in March 2015. It establishes five goals to increase enrollment of people who belong to groups currently underrepresented at UMass, including people of color.
The goals are to establish UMass as a top choice for students of color and those from other underrepresented groups; improve the campus climate reflecting inclusion; enhance diversity and inclusion in programs and curriculum; increase the focus on recruiting, retaining and promoting diverse faculty and staff; and increase outreach to communities and schools with large proportions of minorities.
Perdomo said the group reconvened in February to work toward several goals – to determine the best method to distribute a campuswide survey, to identify ways to measure goals that are identified in the plan and to consider revisions to the diversity plan’s goals based on reaction from students at forums in the fall
The committee is set to deliver a recommendation to Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy on specifics for developing, distributing and analyzing a campuswide survey that will ask students, faculty and staff how they view the culture and other aspects of the UMass community.
Perdomo said they are considering developing and administering the survey internally using UMass resources, hiring consultants to do the task or using both UMass resources and consultants.
Once the survey is set to be delivered, Perdomo said a challenge will be getting campus community members to “buy in” to the importance of the surveys and participate.
“I’m quite thrilled that you’re all here,” she said to the audience of about 75. “We’ll need your assistance in that process.”
The last comprehensive survey conducted by UMass was between 1999 to 2004. “My understanding, it was quite successful,” Perdomo said.
Enku Gelaye, vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life, said that survey was able to lead to “tangible outcomes” partly because specific departments in the schools formed committees to implement solutions to problems found.
The importance of encouraging “buy-in” from the community is central to the discussions of the steering committee, Perdomo said.
Gelaye said the earlier UMass survey was a success because of that buy-in.
“It was administered by phone, so they were first, able to get tremendous engagement and real-time data as they were taking the information down,” she said. “But the act of the phone call itself resulted in a level of buy-in because (survey respondents) were involved in a conversation about their day-to-day life.”
The committee has discussed ways to recreate that effect with the Internet, Gelaye added.
The forum came just two days after an anti-Islam message was discovered written on the university’s Fine Arts Center plaza.
The graffiti was removed and the incident remains under investigation by UMass Police.
In a message emailed Tuesday to the campus community, Subbaswamy called the incident “deeply troubling.”
“The perpetrators of this act will not succeed in their attempt to divide us,” Subbaswamy said in the letter. “On the contrary, their actions will only serve to bring us together as we stand with our Muslim students, faculty and staff and denounce this hateful act.”
Other groups have been the target of offensive messages at UMass this year. In February, police launched an investigation after a swastika was found carved into a bathroom stall in an academic building.
Last week, UMass was among the institutions across the country to receive some 20,000 anti-Semitic fliers to printers and fax machines, allegedly by hackers.
In his closing remarks at the Wednesday meeting Subbaswamy said it’s been a “complicated year” across society and on university campuses.
Universities have evolved in they way that they address issues of diversity and inclusion since the Civil Rights era, he said.
Now, Subbaswamy said, institutions are faced with understanding the way in which unconscious bias affects people in underrepresented groups.
“That’s really the next aspect that we’re dealing with,” he said “It’s been an evolutionary process. We’re learning how to be a better institution.”
Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettenet.com.