Progress toward diversity at OSU highlighted for trustees

COLUMBUS -- The first comprehensive analysis of progress following completion of The Ohio State University’s Diversity Action Plan was presented to the university’s Board of Trustees on Friday (5/3).

Carole Anderson, chair of the Council on Diversity and vice provost for academic administration, told trustees that Ohio State has engaged in numerous activities to advance the institutional commitment to diversity, noting initiatives ranging from lecture series and consistent attention to diversity at the university’s highest levels to involvement of students in diversity event planning and intensive and targeted recruitment efforts.

Anderson noted that upward trends are evident in the recruitment of minority students and women and minority faculty, and in the retention of students. Specifically, the numbers of African American, American Indian and Hispanic students are at an all-time high and reflect an increase in minority enrollment since 1992, and first-year retention rates of African American and Hispanic students in particular have shown increases since 1997.

Among faculty, the percentages of tenure-track women and minority faculty have increased to 27.9 percent and 13 percent, respectively, each up by at least 1 percent since 1999. “What is imperative, of course, is to provide an environment in which these women and minority faculty can thrive and succeed,” Anderson noted.

Climate – and the need to make Ohio State a universally family-friendly place – is a major point addressed in the status report, which functions as a “report card” on the first full year of universitywide activity since the Diversity Action Plan was released.

The council has issued a series of recommendations designed to accelerate progress based on the first-year assessment. In general terms, the council advises Ohio State units to make use of numerous resources across the university, such as the Office of Minority Affairs, which could be useful in developing a network of information about diversity initiatives and projects; The Women’s Place, the Office of Faculty and TA Development, the Multicultural Center and the Office of Human Resources, all of which can assist units in meeting their diversity goals; and the Office of University Relations, which is poised to develop a communication strategy to share information throughout the university and externally, as well.

Anderson also said the council remains concerned that the issues of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered faculty, staff and students need to be given heightened attention in a number of unit plans.

Further council recommendations are arranged according to objectives of the Diversity Action Plan:

·Create a supportive environment that is welcoming for all

·Recruit and retain greater numbers of women and minorities into faculty, staff and administrative positions

·Recruit, retain and graduate greater numbers of minority students

·Provide incentives to academic and support units for developing models of excellence for increasing diversity

·Collect and organize data to create databases in order to systematically and effectively assess progress and align/realign programs to achieve diversity goals

·Assign accountability to achieve progress envisioned in the plan

The status report has been distributed to the campus community, and is available online at www.osu.edu/diversity. A report on the 2001-02 college/unit plans is due to be finished by the end of this quarter.