DIVERSITY INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Minutes for 3/3/06 Meeting

Attending: Peter LaMantia, Sandy Garcia, Tara Blackwell, Melissa Ghafoor, Dexter Wiseman, Jeff Stein, Antonio Commisso and Provost Elizabeth Langland (guest).

Chair: Jay Alt

The meeting was called to order at 1:10pm.

1. Jay shared that the committee is not at full membership yet. 3 faculty members still need  to be added. No timeline for completing this task has been set but he did request  recommendations from the group.
2. Jay shared the most recent attempts at convening a campus wide diversity committee  and provided handouts that covered in detail objectives, goals and other relevant data.
    a) The first happened in the Fall 2002 semester when a sub-committee to the    Strategic Plan Committee was formed to focus specifically on the Plan’s diversity    focused goals. Approximately 2 students, 4 staff members and 3 faculty members   comprised the sub-committee, which produced in addition to the content for the    Plan’s goals a comprehensive plan for fostering diversity at Purchase.
    b) The second happened in the Fall 2004 semester when a divisional committee    within Student Affairs was formed to focus on creating diverse programs and    services and encouraged cross-departmental collaboration within the division. The   committee struggled in the fall due to the heavy transition and re-organization    occurring within the division and eventually dissolved.
    c) Both efforts were chaired by Jay.
3. Jay shared that this committee, once the formal direction and objectives are set, has the  potential and likelihood of being recognized by the College Senate. Jeff Stein also stated  that this would require several of the members to attend a college senate meeting-  preferably the next one.
4. The committee had a dialogue about some of the potential objectives for this committee.  Upon looking over the various handouts that detailed previous attempts, Peter suggested  that the committee be very specific and not try to cover too much as that would limit our  impact and productivity. The ideas that resulted from the dialogue were as follows:
    a) Historical context on which Purchase College was founded
    b) Assessment opportunities
    c) Awareness and sensitivity trainings for faculty, staff and students
5. The Provost attended the meeting as a special guest to charge the committee. She  encouraged the group to remember how inclusive diversity needs to be and that the true  potential of the committee lays in its ability to influence and impact via its  recommendations and findings the educational mission of the College.
6. Friday at 1pm is the hopeful time that the committee can meet. Jay informed those in  attendance that he would send out an e-mail to the full committee confirming this time.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:30pm.

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DIVERSITY DEFINED

OBJECTIVES

MEMBERSHIP