DIVERSITY INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Monday, May 1st Minutes

Attending: Jennie Uleman, Peter LaMantia, Carolina Sanin, Tara Blackwell, Melissa Swinton-Ghafoor.

Chair: Jay Minh Alt

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

1. The committee members introduced themselves. Faculty members Jennie Uleman and Carolina Sanin were the newest additions. Jay noted that several members were not able to attend (Jeff Stein, Hilary Blackman, Antonio Commisso, Dexter Wiseman) due to a time conflict or previous commitment.
2. Jay reviewed the charge of the committee as stated by Provost Langland at a previous committee meeting. The charge is to develop initiatives and recommendations that will support and enhance the educational mission of the College.
3. Jay stated that due to the time required to solicit additional members and then to secure a meeting time, the committee would only be able to meet twice this semester and thus not be able to really move forward in terms of action steps. However, we would focus our energy at these meeting to defining some real goals that will evolve into action steps for the 2006-2007 academic year.
4. The first step as determined by the group would involve an assessment measure with hopes of securing some tangible feedback from the campus community in terms of ideas and suggestions for promoting diversity and open-mindedness on the campus. Examples of services from other institutions, specifically Commissions on various identities from the University of Chicago at Illinois, findings from campus wide survey implemented at SUNY at Oneonta and a survey developed but not implemented by a sub-committee to the Strategic Planning Committee here at Purchase College in 2003, were distributed to the committee for consideration and discussion.
5. Tara Blackwell from Career Development shared how her office was looking into implementing a web-based survey to alumni and that this might be a useful and efficient tool for the committee to consider. Faculty member Jennie Uleman from Philosophy supported this idea and recommended a short version with approximately four questions again with the focus on receiving recommendations and suggestions. She stated that doing a formalized survey would require both budget and time and might not be entirely feasible.  The committee agreed with these statements and strong support for an abbreviated survey seeking tangible suggestions was concluded. Jay shared that during the PTV incident follow-up, the student members of OAPIA (black student organization on campus) compiled a list of recommendations as part of their conclusions to addressing the situation. Jay agreed to contact their representative in hopes of having these recommendations available at the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 2pm. The next and final meeting of the Spring 2006 semester will be on Monday, May 8th at 1pm in Players, 2nd floor of CCN.

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DIVERSITY DEFINED

OBJECTIVES

MEMBERSHIP