NDSU: Diversity Council

Diversity Council ::: Meeting Minutes ::: January 28, 2004

Paul Boswell, Ann Burnett, Jaclynn Davis Wallette, Sandra Holbrook, Ahmed Kamel, Rhonda Kitch, Paul Lundstrom, Charles Okigbo, Charles Peterson, Craig Schnell, Kerri Spiering, Kara Stack, Gene Taylor, Karla Thoennes, Alan White and Jim Wigtil.

I. Announcements

A. The third annual Building Racially Inclusive Communities Conference will be held at the Fargo Holiday Inn May 6-8. The event will be hosted by the Upper Midwest Regional Network of Race Relations and Racial Justice Organizations. For more information, contact Char Voight, from the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice, at (612) 626-9496.

B. NDSU will be celebrating Black History Month in February and Women's Week Feb. 23-27.

C.NDUS Several people from NDSU attended the "A Call to Leadership," a one day conference hosted by the North Dakota University System Diversity Council and held in Mandan Jan. 23. Council member Jim Wigtil brought the School of Education's Accreditation Assessment Committee to the statewide event.

II.Campus Climate Assessment

A. Council members reviewed a PowerPoint presentation addressing the highlights of the Campus Climate Assessment. The study was conducted with assistance from consultant Sue Rankin & Associates, with about 1,600 people responding. Although there was reportedly a low response rate among students, there was an encourage rate of response from people of color.

During the meeting, Council members went through the full PowerPoint presentation, designed to explain some of the assessment's major findings. The presentation was to be fine-tuned before it would be shared with campus groups such as the President's Council, University Senate, Staff Senate, Student Government, and Deans' Council. Each presentation was to last about 20 minutes in length followed by questions and answers.

A one-page handout entitled "Highlights of the Campus Climate Survey Results" was distributed to Council members. The full report is to be available through the NDSU web page in March.

Council members were encouraged to volunteer to sign up in pairs to give Campus Climate Assessment presentations to various groups on campus. Members would have the opportunity to practice the PowerPoint presentation (on Feb. 4).

Two open forums were scheduled to be presented in Century Theater on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 4 p.m., and Thursday, Feb. 19 at 12:30 p.m. In addition, an article announcing the Campus Climate Assessment appeared in the Feb. 11 issue of "It's Happening at State."