A Research Institute on multiculturalism that has both an academic side dedicated to theoretical, statistical and applied research, and a service side where dialogues and training occur as well as trainings and other support services for anyone who is interested in exploring the ideas and notions of diversity. With the two sides under one roof, they will be able to share with each other everything they have learned and work together to learn and conduct research in ways not possible before.

To create a center/institute on campus focused on diversity issues. The goal is to create a place where research, teaching and training occur under one roof. The need is for a place where people can go confront explore their own identity and how it fits in with the rest of the world. At the same time this place needs to have the resources to help those people and the ability to analyze and research what is happening there. The Center/Institute would help people gather information about issues that relate to "otherness" in our society, and also be a resource hub for students faculty and staff. This report was done with these ideas as the cornerstones of the project:

• A resource center to provide support services and training for students faculty and staff
• A research institute doing applied and theoretical research while collaborating with the support service side creating the only center of its kind.
• This center needs to be a place that is integrated with every level of the university helping to reach every school and office.

Mission and Methods

1 Mission: To research other college campuses and take an inventory of our competitors. The goal was to come up with a report that detailed what is, and what is not out there, what works, what doesn't and what to watch out for. My mission was also to find out about the funding of any centers or institutes that I came across.

2 Methods: My main vehicle for gathering information was the Internet. I did research over the net on over forty schools and then narrowed those down to about twenty-five. I made follow-up phone calls to all of the places on the shorter list in order to find out more about specific places that had one or more characteristics that could make them valuable models. My criteria for narrowing down that list and evaluating programs and centers:

• Was there institutional commitment (funding, resources, staff, and most importantly, clear and intentional links between the programs and the university administration)?
• Web sites availability clarity. Were they up to date easy to use full of information and links?
• Had the program achieved real results like participation funding from outside sources national recognition?
• Was there anything that related to or mirrored our goals that the students set out at the beginning of this project?
• Was the school one that we would look at as a peer competitor role model or otherwise related institution?
• Had the school engaged in a groundbreaking project or done something that no-one else had?
• Did the school have a number of separate units that worked independently or was there a central person or group that tied all of the related efforts together?
• How diverse was the community that the school was located in?
• Was there an institutional plan or blueprint?

All of the information I gathered has been compiled in the back of this report titled Appendix: Also in this report, A list of all schools contacted and the contact information (websites, phone-numbers and addresses). My mentors this summer have been

Conclusions and Recommendations

My Findings

There are so many colleges and universities right now that are grappling with the issues of diversity that it would take centuries to catalogue them all. I generally found, with a few exceptions, that most of the separate efforts on campuses are not coordinated and do not work together as well as they could. I found that most schools have addressed the issue in some form and most have a web page devoted to diversity. There are several really excellent programs at some schools most noteworthy are Arizona State, UC San Bernardino, University of Maryland College Park and University of Massachusetts-Lowell. I saw a variety of programs that are effective and could be easily replicated here with some effort. I have detailed a description of the schools I found noteworthy in the main section of this report.

I see that what we could do here would not be done anywhere else. A Research Institute on multiculturalism that has both an academic side dedicated to theoretical, statistical and applied research, and a service side where dialogues and training occur as well as training trainers and providing other support services for ANYONE who is interested in exploring the ideas and notions of diversity. If these two sides are under one roof they will be able to share with each other everything they have learned as well as work together to learn and conduct research in ways not possible before. To me there are two reasons for doing this. First it would be the most efficient way to coordinate/collaborate/communicate between the different realms. Second, it would provide a space where all of the different people, projects, and programs could easily gain from what the other are doing. From my findings nothing like this exists anywhere. See Appendix for a proposal that somewhat mirrors this idea.

What should be in the Center? I have found a number of programs that could all be incorporated into one place. Below is a list of ideas on what could be included:

• Research Units on Ethnic Studies, cross-cultural Communication and group specific research (African America Studies)
• Mentorship programs for first year faculty, first year students of color, LGBT students and Greeks. Many schools have programs that range from first year faculty have a one hour a week session with a faculty member to a big brother type program where freshmen could have a junior or senior who has been trained to be a role model whenever needed for the first year in school.
• Facilitated dialogues lasting from 4-10 weeks for students and faculty where people could meet with the same group and dialogue over a period of time providing an alternative to weekend -long intensive trainings or conferences.
• Regular workshops and conferences for anybody- see main section of report for a detailed example.
• Grant opportunities for Graduate and Undergraduate research and related projects- provide a way for students to work on issues of diversity and explore new areas.
• Media Center where information gathered could be disseminated quickly and effectively while also providing a place where students could learn and improve media skills perhaps collaboration with the School of Journalism. Also in the media center part: A first rate web page keep up to date with activities, mission statement, history, funding opportunities, goals, chat rooms and online forums, and links to other resources. The media center would be the promotional unit of the center that would work to disseminate the information gathered there as well as a vehicle to let the world know what events are happening there and around the Northwest.
• Community outreach- mentoring for high school and middle school students as well as involvement with local community groups. It is very important that we recognize we are part of a local community that is bigger that this campus.
• Library and Video Collection dedicated to studies and resources on multiculturalism.
• Advisory Council- this would be the board of directors that the director would answer to. It would be made up of students, faculty, staff and members of the local community.
• Visiting Faculty Research fellowships and PhD research fellowships
• Projects to bring together the efforts of all of the schools in Oregon

Where Do We Go From Here?

The Research Institute

Specifically to this project the next step would be to research funding sources and spend time generating local and in state interest for this project. There are many institutions that I found with grants and private funding as well as school funded centers. Generally I have found that the school funded programs are under-funded. Therefore, in order to really make this center a success it would take some serious outside funding. If this project is to continue it will need someone to take ownership over it. It is clear to me the most effective next step would be for someone to research funding sources for this project.

The Summer Diversity Intern Project

While no one thinks that there needs to be an identical group of intern positions here it is clear that if this entire project is to succeed it will need to be driven by students. The Students bring a dynamism to the project that only they can and they also have the flexibility to commit more time and energy than a faculty member or administrator. The students are the ones who have tied together all of the different entities on campus that are involved now and they should continue to do so. The best way that I see to continue this would be to formalize what is now the steering committee into the advisory board and ensure it has even representation. Make the summer interns the working group that carries out the Strategic Plan with the guidance of the advisory board. The other crucial point that has been used everywhere is a strategic plan, once the plan is created it can be implemented and followed through on instead of a group making recommendations which inevitably get swept under the rug. Here is my suggested outline based on my findings this summer. Two main thrusts must happen:

• Create a committee to develop a strategic plan for diversity encompassing all that has been highlighted this summer.
• Create an advisory board that will have teams or sub-committees each working on a main section of the plan.

The Next Step

In this report I have detailed what is out there and a variety of things that could be used or incorporated here. Now the time has come to decide what we want to have in our institute in other words the next step is to create the specific proposal of what we will create here. The proposal must address:

This could best be done by a small group with diverse representation. I recommend one or two of each of the following, staff administration, faculty, student and community member. I feel that a group any larger that six or so would make it extremely difficult to keep things moving along at an acceptable pace and would be enough to get a diverse and knowledgeable variety of opinions. Clearly there can be no further action taken until what the Center/Institute will consist of is decided and that decision must be made by a fair representation of this community.

Reflections

This summer was challenging is many respects, frustrating and above all rewarding. I feel lucky to have worked with such a motivated and dynamic group of people. Almost everyone knew what the project was about took their part and ran with it. I feel that the results that are coming from this are truly beneficial to the campus and could only have been gained in this way. We all had similar challenges and helped each other get through them. I think it is also important to note that we were working for a much cheaper rate then faculty or Grad students would have and that makes us a bargain. The worst part of this summer is now when the Administration has made no commitment to continuing this project in any way while simultaneously detailing, in volumes, what will not happen. This stance, which is quite vague has undermined our the significance of our efforts by implying that it is not necessary to have students being the driving force behind this. Also, nothing will destroy my motivation more than being told that there is no clear certainty that their project will be continued. This has been a learning experience and it has also gained great results, I am proud of this project and hope that it will continue. While I have enjoyed working on this project, I wonder will our work be continued as it should be or swept under the rug? My biggest concern however is the success of this project and what I really want to see is a group by this fall created to hammer out a proposal for this center.

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codac@uoregon.edu

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