Tuesday, October 29, 2002

WILMINGTON, NC – A broad and bold commitment across the board is needed from trustees, administrators, faculty, staff and students if the University of North Carolina at Wilmington is to attain true educational diversity.

A report issued Monday, Oct. 28, by a blue ribbon task force studying ethnic diversity at UNCW, said that while Chancellor James R. Leutze is fully committed to diversity, his commitment has not “permeated the entire campus as reflected in activities and especially outcomes.” The task force challenged the trustees and the chancellor to marshal the resources necessary to “capitalize on this opportunity to achieve diversity as pertains to the educational context.”

Appointed by Chancellor Leutze in April, the task force was comprised of four former chancellors at University of North Carolina system universities -- Lloyd V. Hackley, chancellor emeritus, Fayetteville State University; E.K. Fretwell, chancellor emeritus, UNC Charlotte; Edward B. Fort, chancellor and professor, NC A& T State University; and Joseph Oxendine, chancellor emeritus, UNC Pembroke.

Their charge was to address these issues:

• How can UNC Wilmington attract, retain and graduate more African-American students?

• How can the university attract and retain more minority faculty?

• What is the campus climate regarding ethnic diversity?

• What steps should be taken to achieve these goals?

The report cited 21 findings assessing current diversity issues on campus and offered 61 broad-ranging recommendations that, if implemented, will “profoundly and positively improve the educational, social, and cultural climate on campus.”

The report stressed the importance of educational institutions in making progress in achieving cultural diversity across all aspects of society. “Educational institutions have the unique capacity to define and help create an America in which individual, group, community, and national needs can be met, because education is both an end in itself and means to better life conditions,” stated the report.

Among the findings were comments that UNCW’s efforts to recruit students and faculty are “disjointed;” the campus climate for incoming minorities is not supportive; and that rising academic standards have led some students to perceive that the university is interested only in students with high SAT scores, GPAs and class rank.

It also said staffing patterns and student enrollment at UNCW do not adequately reflect the diversity of the state or the region; that ethnic minority personnel predominate at the lowest responsibility and consequently, the lowest salary levels; and that campus social and entertainment activities fail to present an adequate range of diversity.

The report also commented that responsibilities for dealing with matters of diversity are far too disaggregated throughout the campus, particularly the critical function of faculty recruitment.

Chief among the recommendations were that a new position be created, an associate provost for diversity, primarily to facilitate minority faculty recruitment. The report also recommended that the chancellor create a Commission on Diversity to develop a five-year comprehensive diversity plan whose implementation would be overseen by the associate provost for diversity. The plan would include hosting on- and off-campus forums to obtain feedback about diversity issues and plans and to conduct a campus climate survey to examine attitudes among faculty, staff, and students.

Among recommendations dealing with minority student recruitment were to hire retired public school teachers as minority student recruiters and to hire two outstanding new minority graduates to work full-time as admission staffers for a year.

The report also urged the university to establish a closer working relationship with the Ministerial Alliance and the African-American Minority group of ministers. It also asked the board of trustees, as it goes about selecting the next chancellor, to place major emphasis on a candidate pool and the ultimate selection that demonstrates the board’s commitment to diversity.

/

The presenters stressed heavily the importance of involving the university in the local schools to begin preparing minority youngsters early in life to think about attending college and taking college preparatory courses.

In response to this preliminary report, Chancellor Leutze announced that he has asked Dr. Michelle Howard-Vital, vice chancellor for public service and continuing studies, and Dr. Melton McLaurin, associate provost, to co-chair a committee to address the issues presented in the report. Dr. Hackley, chair of the reporting committee, will act as a consultant to the UNCW committee as it goes about its work over the next six months. The diversity report delivered this morning by the Blue Ribbon Commission can be found at the following Web address:

http://www.uncwil.edu/Univ_planning/commission_diversity_report.pdf