DIVERSITY INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Monday, May 8th Minutes

Attending: Carolina Sanin, Tara Blackwell, Jeff Stein, Valerie Weaver and Hilary Blackman.

Chair: Jay Minh Alt

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

1. The committee members introduced themselves. Valerie Weaver who was recently elected president of the PSGA was in attendance. The PSGA president has a standing position on the committee by virtue of their title. Jay informed the group that this would be the last meeting of the academic year and that next year Ronnie Halperin- presiding officer of the College Senate- would assist in soliciting more faculty members for potential membership. A new meeting time would need to be determined also, but would not be pursued until membership was confirmed. Meetings will be 90 minutes in length and held every other week.
2. The minutes were reviewed from the May 1st meeting. Tara noted that the online web survey was not going to be pursued by her office- the Office of Career Development.
3. Discussion resumed on the potential development and implementation of a 4-question web survey that would seek from the participants recommendations and suggestions for promoting diversity. Concern over time was again re-iterated by several committee members. Carolina Sanin suggested the use of either focus groups or a one-time open forum. This idea was supported by the committee who also noted that whatever instrument we used had to reach a representative group from the campus (ie arts and LAS, student, faculty and staff, etc.). The committee agreed to shelve this discussion until the Fall when the development and eventual implementation of the instrument would occur.
4. Jay presented the recommendations that were formulated by OAPIA as a result of the PTV incident. Jay then distributed the Template for Fostering Diversity document that was drafted by the sub-committee to the Strategic Planning Committee in 2003. He noted that many of the recommendations overlapped thus demonstrating the need for implementation and pursuit of these ideas.
5. The website recommendation that was developed in the March 10th meeting was re-visited. The idea is very basic and revolves around having a “Diversity at Purchase” link on the main website page. The link would contain all diversity related services and programs that exist at Purchase and be an efficient and simple way of demonstrating what we currently provide. Jeff stated that he could look into compiling information over the summer. The committee seemed very optimistic about this recommendation.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:10pm. The next meeting will be in the Fall semester at a time and location TBA.

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DIVERSITY DEFINED

OBJECTIVES

MEMBERSHIP