DIVERSITY INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Wednesday, October 25th Minutes

Attending: Virginia Breen, Rochelle John, Erik Connolly, Evan Bittel, Peter LaMantia and Sandy Garcia.

Chair: Jay Minh Alt

The meeting was called to order at 3pm.
 

1. Jay informed the committee that he spoke with Provost Elizabeth Langland via e-mail about the development of a formal charge. The following three items approved by the committee at the October 11th meeting were endorsed by the Provost and will be formally voted upon at the next College Senate meeting in November.
• To collect and maintain a comprehensive guide of programs and services that focus on diversity appreciation and/or multicultural education
  
• To develop instruments for outreach to the campus community as a means to assess the current conditions concerning sensitivity and openness to diversity and then make recommendations based on the findings
  
• To create a vision that promotes diversity and multiculturalism both inside and outside the classroom thus supporting the educational mission of the institution
2. Jay informed the committee that the Marketing Committee has tentatively approved the creation of a link on the main homepage entitled “Diversity”. The link would detail all of the programs, services and themes at Purchase College that actively promote diversity awareness and multicultural education. Jeff Stein, previous PSGA President and current Coordinator for Special Programs in Student Affairs, was a guest at the meeting and distributed handouts of the proposed content for the diversity link. The exact location of the link on the main homepage as well as the confirming approval of the link itself will be voted upon at the next Marketing Committee meeting.
3. The committee was given the official breakdown in terms of membership, logistics and tasks for the three work groups for the committee. The exact information is as follows:
   Work group tasks and membership
   To collect and maintain a comprehensive guide of programs and services that focus on diversity appreciation and/or multicultural education
   Work Group Members: Tara (leader), Hilary, Rochelle, Jim, Erik, Carolina
   
• Contact SUNY Oneonta to secure a copy of their outreach instrument
  
• Create a list and contacts of all departments and offices that we intend to outreach
  
• If desired, revise Oneonta instrument or create own to send out to departments and offices
  
• Compile the list of programs and services
  To develop instruments for outreach to the campus community as a means to assess the current conditions concerning sensitivity and openness to diversity and then make recommendations based on the findings
  Work Group Members: Peter (leader), Virginia, student TBA via Valerie
  
• Decide which categories we would prefer, disaggregate the existing data accordingly and create trend reports
  
• Research existing outreach instruments that assess the current conditions concerning sensitivity and openness to diversity used at other institutions and determine the plausibility of implementation at Purchase College
  To create a vision that promotes diversity and multiculturalism both inside and outside the classroom thus supporting the educational mission of the institution
  Work Group Members: Shaka (leader), Dana-Ain, Sandy, Evan
  
• Review the outlines from existing diversity plans at other institutions
  
• Create a template for the Purchase College version incorporating the finished products from the other two groups and presenting several core recommendations that will allow for Purchase College to continue evolving in its growth and progress- specifically in the area of promoting diversity.
  Additional work group logisitics
  
• Needs to meet on a regular basis to be determined by the work group members
  
• Only the leaders of the three work groups need to attend the Wednesdays at 3pm meetings. The dates are November 8th and 29th
  
• Jay as the chair will attend all work group meetings
4. The work group leaders will contact their respective work group colleagues to schedule a meeting. The meeting will take place within the next two weeks. Committee members will now attend these particular meetings for the remainder of the semester.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:50pm.