A full year ahead of schedule, the 2010 initiation of the Diversity Action (DA) Committee highlights Guilford’s increasing attention to campus diversity. The committee was created to facilitate the implementation of the college’s Diversity Plan.At a Feb. 4 meeting conversation focused on the difficulty of assessing both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of diversity. The committee’s concerns spoke to the reality that increasing diversity might not be as simple as building up numbers and quotas.
“We can admit a whole bunch of people who look differently, but if we don’t have an environment that accepts them, they’ll be miserable,” said Holly Wilson, director of multicultural education.
In response to these considerations, the DA Committee planned for an evolving role that will keep in step with the progress of Guilford’s Diversity Plan. Committee members emphasized the importance of community-wide conversation in defining their mission.
“We would like to begin an open dialogue with faculty about where they feel they need help,” said Sherry Giles, associate professor of justice and policy studies. “We’ll ask for what faculty struggles with and also get input from students on what they would like to see happening.”
Where the Diversity Plan sets guidelines aimed at increased diversity, the DA Committee works to execute those goals. The Feb. 4 meeting focused on ways to initiate the “action” for which the committee is named.
“We will collect data on the climate, and then show what (the) faculty is doing right and how it can improve,” said Michele Malotky, assistant professor of biology.
In an effort to keep an open ear to the community, the committee plans to hold community-wide forums on diversity, hold anti-racism workshops, and to “use timelines where we meet with people and check in on progress a week later,” said Jeff Favolise, assistant to the president for planning and management.
Favolise explained that the committee is not singly focused on a critique of Guilford’s shortcomings. Members discussed the need to acknowledge the college’s current efforts to foster diversity.
“We want to increase and improve the good that has already been done,” said Favolise. “To get this committee in front of the community and basically listen and ask how we can best serve them.”
The DA Committee saw the beginnings of that open dialogue when Gilian M’Maitsi, junior, offered her perspective on Guilford’s atmosphere of diversity.
“Some students come here and don’t see issues of diversity because Guilford is a similar element to their previous environment,” said M’Maitsi. “I’ve been in Greensboro for 10 years and I can say that there is not a lot of diversity on this campus. If there were more diversity, there would be more opportunity for students to participate. There would be less apathy.”
The DA Committee is prepared to challenge this indifference.
“As opposed to just talking, we have to start doing,” said Malotky.
In answer to the Diversity Plan’s call to “assemble a committee that is as diverse as the college is and hopes to become,” the group is composed of faculty, students, and staff.
The Feb. 4 meeting also included Charles Cameron, a staff representative, Edwins Gwako, associate professor of sociology and anthropology, and Gracie Harris, CCE outreach coordinator.
The DA Committee hopes to increase the diversity of perspectives on the panel by collaborating with Community Senate, holding community forums, and inviting students to get involved.