University of Maryland Office of the President Speeches and Statements
University of Maryland Office of the President
Initiatives		 Student Athletes

B. Defining the Scope and Language of this Report

Although the president's charge was much broader than solving, or resolving, the hate crimes that plagued our campus in fall 1999, we kept in mind that these were the incidents that prompted the establishment of the panel, and focused our attention on the campus climate for groups that had been singled out in those attacks--groups that had once been excluded and are still underrepresented on our campus due to legal, social, cultural, and political barriers based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and different abilities. Most of our suggestions, however, are aimed more broadly, either because of legal requirements or because we believe that the targeted groups would benefit from initiatives that affect the entire University of Maryland community.

Throughout our report we use the term "diversity" to refer to people of, and sometimes research and curricula about, different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, age, religions, physical ability, and social, economic, or educational backgrounds. As it is commonly understood, however, the term has a meaning that is far more general than ours: "diverse" simply means "unlike in kind" or "varied"; "diversity" simply refers to the fact or quality of difference or variety. Clearly, therefore, our campus is diverse in many more ways than those we intend when we have used the term in this report. Nonetheless, we expect that people will understand our more narrow usage.

We also sometimes use the word "inclusive" or "inclusivity" as a synonym for our particular usage of "diverse" or "diversity." When, however, we use the term "multicultural" (research or curricula), we are referring to diverse races or ethnicities only. In this report, we also use the words "identity-based" groups: here we are referring to groups that establish community on the basis of their racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, or gender identity.


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