In his decade of service as top diversity officer at three very different universities — one public, two private — Dr. Keenan Grenell thinks that he has developed a good sense of what works when it comes to major diversity initiatives. He draws his list from stints at Auburn, Marquette and Colgate universities.
It’s a mixed bag depending on how one is defining diversity, says the veteran educator who now runs Grenell Group LLC, a Milwaukee-based consulting agency. Other colleagues agree, in some respects.
“There’s much more of a push among chief executives (college presidents) for this whole concept of global diversity, and it’s putting a strain on traditional diversity groups — African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans,” says Grenell, who most recently served as dean of diversity at Colgate University. “There’s still significant work that needs to be done (with respect to racial minorities) in terms of access, ownership (of the job of ensuring diversity), resources and acquisition (of talent),” says Grenell. He sees traditional diversity efforts being diluted as the range of concerns under the umbrella of diversity continues to expand.
Even as the definition of diversity expands beyond race to include and protect the rights of more specific groups ranging from senior citizens to the disabled to homosexuals and transgenders, there are some key elements Grenell and his former colleagues in the chief diversity officer corps tend to think are essential to any major diversity initiative having the potential to succeed.
Commitment from the top
“Reality doesn’t always follow rhetoric,” says Dr. Njeri Nuru-Holm, vice president for institutional development at Cleveland (Ohio) State University. “When what is being said is being acted upon, that makes me feel supported,” say Nuru-Holm. She says university President Ronald Berkman backs the school’s diversity agenda with his pronouncements, key hires and inclusion of diversity concerns in every aspect of running the school from program development to budget planning.
Adds Grenell, “We’re at a point in higher education where it’s really transparent who’s committed and who’s not. It’s in the president’s communications and how they [incorporate] that chief diversity officer into all the major decisions made on campus from capital campaigns to athletics.”
