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REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PRESIDENT'S DIVERSITY PANEL August 15, 2000
A. About the Panel
On January 28, 2000, a panel of 21 members of the University of
Maryland community appointed by President Mote began meeting in
order to
"consider any or all opportunities for enhancement of our
experience as a diverse community [and] promote a campus-wide
vision
that seeks to bring together people with diverse views and
experiences." (See "From a Diverse
Campus to a Diverse
Community: Vision and Charge," Appendix A.) The panel
itself
represented these "diverse views and
experiences"--including
undergraduate (6) and graduate (2) students, faculty (8), and
exempt (1)
and non-exempt (4) staff, of whom nine are African American, eight
are
European American, three are Latino, and two are Asian American.
(Appendix B.) Over the course of the
semester, three undergraduate
students became unable to attend our regular (lengthy) meetings,
leaving
three, who in their energy and commitment were more than able to
assure
that student voices would be heard; one non-exempt staff person
was also
unable to attend. This report, therefore, represents the opinions
of
seventeen members of the appointed panel. The size and diversity of the panel presented both challenges
and
opportunities. The "learning curve" for everyone was
steep,
since no one of us was situated to have experienced the whole of
the
university's community life. On the other hand, we were not
only
able
to learn from each other, but perhaps even more important, we were
never
permitted to delude ourselves that we instinctively knew what
others,
situated differently, had experienced on our campus. The panel was also able to call on many other university
members for
information and advisement, meeting with administrators
responsible for
the functions that related to our charge, the heads of the various
Presidential Commissions, faculty whose scholarly research focuses
on
the climate of racially diverse campuses, a number of students
pulled
together for a useful set of focus groups, and other university
employeesÑranging from non-exempt staff to the vice-presidents.
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