The Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity and the Division of Academic and Student Affairs hosted “Campus Diversity Conversation: An Update on Diversity Initiatives at NC State” in Stewart Theatre March 1. Numerous presenters and senior staff members gathered to discuss the diversity initiatives in progress across campus.
The event was open to all NC State students, faculty and staff. Many in attendance were hoping to hear from senior administrators about what more can be done to increase tolerance and diversity across NC State’s campus.
“I expected there to be a little more interaction between the students, especially [the ones] that are here, and the administration,” said Matthew Wright, a junior studying graphic design. “But I guess for what it’s worth, it’s still good to know that there are so many parts of the university trying to take action.”
Presenters included Chancellor Randy Woodson, Provost Warwick Arden, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Linda McCabe Smith and Vice Chancellor and Dean of Academic and Student Affairs Mike Mullen. Each spoke on how they are taking steps in their respective departments to increase diversity and cultural competency in the campus community.
“There has been a strong request in doing a better job in communicating back to [the community] the programs we are working on,” Arden stated in his opening remarks. “Today is about closing the loop a little bit and providing feedback.”
Many of the presentations centered around plans that are being developed to take place in years to come. While the amount of time these process are taking was critiqued by some students during the Q&A portion of the night, others understood why these processes sometimes take a more substantial amount of time. Johnia Murray, a junior studying psychology and a chairperson for the African American Student Advisory Council, believes these ideas take time for a reason.
“As a person that sits on a task force for the [Recruitment, Admission, Retention, and Graduation for Underrepresented Minority Students Initiative], I also see that there is a lot of tedious comb-throughing that has to go into programs and initiatives before they are implemented and put out to the public,” Murray stated. “If you don’t exhaust all of your measures to flesh them out, there could be a lot of mistakes in the making, there can be a lot of backlash. So I guess the trade-off is you are taking a lot of time to get these out, but you also get a lot of promptness and conciseness when they are publicized.”
Many in attendance were happy to learn of the many initiatives NC State is taking to increase diversity, such as implementing mandatory Title IX training for students in the future, training student leaders on cultural competency and establishing a standard definition of cultural competency that all faculty and staff will be trained by.
“I think that it’s comforting to know that the university is at least planning on doing something, and that some of these things they have presented today are actually being put into motion — even if it’s in the early stages,” Wright said. “I think that any progress is good progress because I feel like there are universities or other entities who aren’t even making plans to solve the problem.”
This event was in response to many students, faculty and staff asking for more transparency about what is being done to increase diversity. The Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity has created a “Diversity” section on NC State’s main website. For more information about the initiatives discussed and other diversity events happening on campus, visit ncsu.edu/diversity or The Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity.
Major Frank Brinkley, field operations commander for NC State University Police Department, speaks to the crowd at the Campus Diversity Conversation held in Stewart Theatre March 1.
