Why does Carolina need a diversity plan?

The need for a structured way to monitor and assess the University's vision for a diverse and inclusive community has been expressed in numerous ways over time. The Faculty Council in 1998 adopted a resolution calling on the University to seek and assure diversity among students, staff, and faculty. Along with educational excellence and intellectual growth, the resolution said the University's obligations include fostering "mutually beneficial interactions among students, faculty, staff, and administrators who possess diverse backgrounds, and wide varieties of perspectives and life experiences." Two years later, the Chancellor's Minority Review Committee called for a systematic, university-wide assessment and action plan. The Carolina Academic Plan, the Enrollment Policy Advisory Committee, and the Chancellor's Task Force for a Better Workplace also have clearly stated the need for attention to diversity.

In the spring of 2004, Chancellor James Moeser charged the Office for Minority Affairs to plan and conduct a University-wide diversity assessment. The findings of this assessment were used to inform this plan to guide Carolina 's vision for diversity in the future. The Task Force reached five general conclusions:

• Diversity clearly resonates as an important issue for a majority of faculty, staff, and students. Moreover, they support diversity themselves and see the University's public commitment as supportive of a diverse community. Faculty, staff, and students also believe the University can and should continue to strive to achieve its diversity ideals. An important next step for the University is the articulation of its vision for diversity. This will help members of the University community develop a shared understanding of our values, vision, and commitment to diversity.
• The undergraduate student body is generally seen as diverse, and the University is credited with doing a good job of recruiting a diverse undergraduate population. Concerns are widely expressed about other segments of the Carolina community, however.
• Members of the University community showed widespread agreement that they have learned and benefited from experiences in a diverse community, but that the mere presence of diversity is insufficient to achieve the maximum educational benefits diversity can offer. Interaction across diverse groups also must occur.
• Although most members of the University community say they feel comfortable in discussions, dialogue about diversity issues appears to be limited. Promoting respectful, civil discussion in the classroom and throughout the University community should be a priority.
• The majority of faculty, staff, and students feel the University offers a warm, welcoming, and supportive environment. Nonetheless, the welcome extended to some groups appears uncertain.

In response to this report, the Chancellor urged the adoption of core values for diversity and the development of a university-wide diversity plan to support the institution in the on-going review and evaluation of diversity achievements and needs. An ad hoc planning group, led by Archie Ervin, Associate Provost for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and co-chaired by Cookie Newsom, Director for Diversity Education and Assessment, met during fall of 2005 to outline the dimensions of a diversity plan for Carolina . Members of the ad hoc planning group were Vicki Bradley , Senior Director HR Programs, Human Resources; John Brodeur , Associate Director, Carolina Leadership Development; Iris Carlton-Laney , Professor, School of Social Work; Natasha Chapman , Director of Minority Recruitment and Retention, Graduate School; Fred Clark , Professor, Romance Languages and Associate Dean, Academic Services; Charles Daye , Distinguished Professor, School of Law; Melissa Exum , Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Dean of Students; Steve Farmer , Director, Undergraduate Admissions; Dan Thorton , Assistant Director, Scholarships and Student Aid; and Carroll Ann Trotman , Professor and Associate Dean, School of Dentistry.

Carolina's Core Values for Diversity

In order for Carolina leaders to take responsibility for the diversity plan, it is critical that all members of the university community work from a common understanding of the scope and significance of diversity. We know that diversity enriches learning by fostering interactions among persons presenting many kinds of differences. Attention to diversity also strengthens our commitment to nondiscrimination by removing inappropriate grounds for exclusion and by encouraging us to take affirmative measures to include persons who might otherwise be excluded. As a public institution with a mission to serve all the people of North Carolina , the University is committed to ongoing attention to diversity in its many dimensions. Finally, we recognize that education takes place most productively among persons with differing social backgrounds, economic circumstances, personal characteristics, philosophical outlooks, life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, expectations, and aspirations, to mention some salient factors. The University works to assure that we have a complement of students, faculty, and staff that broadly reflects the ways in which people differ. We speak of these differences as representing "diversity."

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , as an educational institution, is committed to the following core values with respect to diversity:

• The University supports intellectual freedom, promotes personal integrity and justice, and pursues values that foster enlightened leadership devoted to improving the conditions of human life in the state, the nation, and the world.
• The University believes that it can achieve its educational, research, and service mission only by creating and sustaining an environment in which students, faculty, and staff represent diversity, for example, of social backgrounds, economic circumstances, personal characteristics, philosophical outlooks, life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, expectations, and aspirations, to mention some salient factors.
• The University will achieve and enhance diversity on the campus through the admission of students and employment of faculty and staff who broadly reflect the ways in which we differ.
• The University promotes intellectual growth and derives the educational benefits of diversity by creating opportunities for intense dialogue and rigorous analysis and by fostering mutually beneficial interactions among members of the community.
• The University provides an environment that values and respects civility and cordiality of discourse in order that all members of a diverse community feel welcomed and free to express their ideas without fear of reprisal.

All members of the Carolina community are expected to act in ways that support these core values. Carolina leaders have a special responsibility to integrate these values into the learning, research and work cultures of their units, and to articulate these values in light of the specific interests of their unit.