As part of an ongoing effort to create a more inclusive campus climate, officials at Hampshire College have pledged to implement new diversity initiatives.
Although students and the college administration have not yet finalized exactly what the new plan will entail, Elaine Thomas, the college’s director of communications, says that the 38-year-old Massachusetts institution will remain committed to providing funding for various minority-student organizations and faculty diversity training.
Announcement of the new plan comes amidst recent student claims that the Massachusetts college hasn’t done enough to create faculty positions in studies about people of color and organize diversity-related events. According to several media reports, more than 300 Hampshire students recently skipped classes to stage a walkout in front of President Ralph J. Hexter’s office to denounce the school’s inaction. Fifteen percent of Hampshire’s faculty are people of color, while minorities make up 13 percent of the student body, according to the school’s Web site.
Many students who participated in the walkout are demanding an “actively inclusive” campus, says Thomas, who adds that students submitted a list of 17 demands to the school administration. The activists’ list of demands includes such items as re-establishing a dean of multicultural affairs position, additional faculty positions in studies about minority groups, and “mandatory anti-oppression training” for faculty and staff, according to The Associated Press.
Though Thomas declines to go into detail about the demands, she notes that school officials and students are still in discussions.
“We’re deeply concerned about questions relating to race,” she says, adding that the college’s president has had an ongoing dialogue with students surrounding diversity-related issues since May of last year. “We’re all proud of our students for raising these issues and we are having an ongoing dialogue about these issues.”
