DIVERSITY INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Wednesday, September 13th Minutes

Attending: Carolina Sanin, Tara Blackwell, Virginia Breen, Jim McElwaine, Shaka McGlotten, Dana-Ain Davis, Sandra Garcia, Rochelle John.

Chair: Jay Minh Alt

The meeting was called to order at 3pm.

1. The committee members introduced themselves. Jay noted that with assistance from Ronnie Halperin, presiding faculty officer for the College Senate, six faculty members have agreed to serve on the committee for the upcoming year. Jennie Uleman, however, is on leave for the fall semester but intends on returning for the spring. Jay also noted that several committee members were not able to attend this first meeting, including PSGA President Valerie Weaver, who would be selecting another student to sit on the committee in her place (class conflict) for this semester. The PSGA President has a permanent seat on the committee by virtue of their position.
2. Jay distributed the minutes from the previous semester meetings (4 total). He noted that the committee struggled first with gaining faculty members and second with finding a meeting time. Therefore, the overall productivity of the committee last year was limited.
3. Jay shared with the group the history behind the formation of the committee and the rationale for why it needed to be a standing committee on the College Senate. Essentially, the committee was formed due to student concerns over two highly controversial incidents on campus involving insensitivity toward under-represented identities and groups. In order for the committee to have any type of stature and influence as it pertained to its mission and recommendations, it needed to have the ear of the senior administration thus the standing committee status.
4. Jay distributed the list of recommendations that were created by the student leaders who led the motion that resulted in the committee’s formation. Shaka pointed out that the recommendations centered on these particular students’ perceptions of institutional racism as a major concern. Shaka in turn asked if this was the only institutional response to the second and most recent incident. Jay and others stated that there were several campus responses including teach-ins and temporary suspension of live broadcasts on PTV.
5. Shaka asked if the committee’s intention was to promote diversity awareness or combat an “ism” or both. The group engaged in a dialogue on this question and while a concrete response was not agreed upon there was wide support for the notion that because this committee is so new that in fact the individual contributions of each member combined with the collective cooperation of the group would determine the overall direction and purpose of the committee.
6. Jim stated that the current reporting structure to College Senate is a good start for potential impact and influence.
   Dana-Ain suggested that the committee needs a “bi-model approach” in which it devises strategies to address multiple “isms” such as sexism and racism and also proposes ideas to promote diversity appreciation.
7. Jay mentioned that an initial concern from the College Senate in the spring semester when they approved this committee’s formation was a fear of overlap with the Affirmative Action Committee. Because Jay also serves on that committee, he stated that some overlap would be inevitable and acceptable. However, the Affirmative Action Committee deals with the legal aspect of hiring, processing complaints of harassment and ensuring that federal and state standards are fulfilled while the Diversity Initiatives Committee deals with a far more intangible matter of diversity awareness and climate assessment. Diversity does require a diverse body to work with thus making recruitment a natural focus and in this capacity the overlap would exist.
8. Jay stated that the Affirmative Action Officer by virtue of their position would have a permanent seat on the committee, however both Dana and he are sitting on the search committee as the previous AAO departed in June. In the interim, because the Director of Human Resources has temporarily taken on some of the responsibilities of the AAO, Jim asked if Wayne McGrath could attend committee meetings until a replacement has been hired. Jay would look into this idea, which was unanimously supported by the committee.
9. In an effort to supply focus and direction for the committee for the upcoming year, the committee discussed and drafted the following four points that they intend on addressing:
   a) Student input: serve as the formal line of communication with students on matters dealing with diversity and multiculturalism.
   b) Collecting current programs and services that focus on diversity and multiculturalism
   c) Data analysis: look at available data from IR on such items as a comparison of retention of students of color with the overall retention rate
   d) Recommendations on how to promote diversity at Purchase College
   e) These items will serve as effective starting points for further discussion at the next meeting, to be held on Wednesday, September 27th at 3pm in Players, 2nd floor of Campus Center North, room 2006.

The meeting was adjourned at 4pm.

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DIVERSITY DEFINED

OBJECTIVES

MEMBERSHIP