A town hall meeting at the University of Maryland on the school’s proposed diversity plan revealed divisions among the invested students, faculty and staff members who critiqued everything in the document from word choice to the exclusion of some groups to the definition of diversity.
Criticized for its ambiguity and lack of specificity – especially with regard to accountability – the draft encountered challenges in defining diversity in an age when identifiers abound and conversations about a post-racial reality flare up in classrooms and courtrooms.
“We’re still trying to figure it out what diversity means and what diversity is may be different things to different groups,” said committee chair Dr. Robert Waters, the assistant to the president for equity and diversity.
In the proposal, the committee called for increased efforts for retaining and training faculty for promotion, facilitating opportunities for diversity-themed projects and conversations at all levels, as well as identifying problem areas within the school with regular assessments and meetings.
There are more than 50 diversity-related offices on the College Park campus, Waters said, but they are so spread out that a lack of visibility dilutes their strength.
“The offices are all over the place and we are uncoordinated in diversity efforts,” he said. “We need to make sure things are lined up. We ought to look like what we are, which is one of the strongest diverse campuses in the country.” As a result, the committee proposed the creation of a chief diversity officer to oversee coordination efforts.
Student body President Steve Glickman, who serves on the committee, said an over-emphasis on racial/ethnic differences obscures other forms of diversity that transcend numerical representation and physical appearance.
