OPINION & EDITORIAL
Diversity Post needs clear direction
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- Politicking destroyed opt-out's proponents (April 14, 2003)
- Madison's annual hip-hop conference falters (April 14, 2003)
- Dear Dave: Post this near your desk (April 17, 2003)
- Redirecting control (April 23, 2003)
- Don't Cut Historical Society Funds (April 29, 2003)
Related Stories:
- Focus on students when dealing with diversity (September 12, 2002)
- Thank you, Dr. Spear (October 26, 2005)
- Creating a point for 'diversity and climate' (February 11, 2003)
- Make room at the top (October 17, 2002)
- Amid failures of Plan 2008, students need to demand action (September 27, 2005)
by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Thursday, January 23, 2003
University Provost Peter Spear last week followed up the latest move to focus the administration’s efforts in executing Plan 2008. The campus’s new associate vice chancellor for diversity position has the potential to focus teeming initiatives and efficiently proceed toward a more comfortable climate in a way the amoebic Bascom entity has largely failed to do.
On the other hand, the new duties could remain overly undefined and produce little more than another bureaucratic front from which to deflect pressure from Spear, Chancellor Wiley and Paul Barrows.
The result will have a lot to do with how the associate vice chancellor shapes her role in the unfolding semester. Fortunately Bernice Durand is a veteran professor experienced in diversity affairs and initiatives, who appears to have a responsible vision for the new office.
Right now, Durand faces a quagmire task — sifting through the muck of compounding and conflicting ideas that have accumulated since Plan 2008 has been in action. She is trying to identify successful strategies and says she will listen to the myriad perspectives before moving forward with an agenda of her own.
That plan is fine so long as the procedure moves beyond the vague rhetoric of “advancing campus climate” that has impelled mostly ineffective strokes thus far. We will publish our own specific recommendations and cautions for Durand in the next two weeks.
In the meantime, it is vital for Durand to take note of the several embarrassments from the past decade when tolerance initiatives turned into suppressed expression and so-called correctness occasionally replaced dialogue.
“We’re not the PC police,” Spear said, and Durand insists she will confront climate problems by attacking prejudice rather than perpetrators. That’s exactly the kind of active approach — as opposed to reactionary means like interfering in controversial curriculum or instituting anonymous complaint boxes — that can propel real improvement at Wisconsin.
Without being an implement for any incensed party, Durand can be a responsive ombudsman for under-represented voices. She is already aware that academic diversity encompasses promoting accessibility across genders, physical abilities, sexual orientation and other differences, in addition to race and culture. As co-editor of the original Plan 2008 for UW System, she grasps the need for recruitment and retention programs.
If Durand can use her experience and vision to further focus a cohesive and responsible plan, her extension of the administration ought to be a productive investment.
Anonymous (September 13, 2005 @ 12:25am):
Pardon for a minute here, ...I was just reading your article on, "Diversity post needs clear Direction".
With all respect to you/yours, what the hell does any entity have a NEED for a "Diversity Post". Who are you trying to impress? It's no different than creating a "Multiculturalist Post". For what??
Who do you think you're amusing?
Diversity is nothing more than "pie in the sky".
