The following email was received from Jiannbin Shiao jshiao@darkwing.uoregon.edu and from Lisa Freinkel freinkel@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU in response to a request sent by Senate President Peter Gilkey gilkey@darkwing.uoregon.edu to the uodiversity listserve requesting a brief report for the Senate Executive Committee concerning the Summer Diversity Initiative. 

Summer Diversity Initiative

Last Spring a disagreement over racial stereotyping in a PPPM class led to an email debate on the class mailing list -- a debate that ended abruptly in several hostile messages to female students of color. To address these events the FAC and President's Office established 10 paid summer internships. Their approximate charge was to study ways to improve (1) university response to bias related incidents and (2) the community conditions that facilitated Spring events and hampered institutional response. The ten interns pursued projects ranging from the long term proposal for a diversity research center, to more immediate interventions: e.g. the development of a bias response team to directly address charge #1, and the creation of video and related materials to facilitate campus diversity dialogue. A biweekly steering committee of faculty, staff, ASUO representatives, and administrators met with the interns to act as a sounding board and develop a common culture regarding diversity. Regular meeting attendees included the President, the Provost, the ASUO President, the Senate President, and a representative from FAC. As part of each intern's work, s/he met independently with a mentor and established contacts throughout campus. Info about the Internships and drafts of their final reports and recommendations are available on the web: http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~asuomca/diversityinit.html. The Interns welcome your feedback. A mailing list of former interns, members of the former steering committee, and other interested parties has been established to discuss the future of the initiative. At present, plans are being considered re: presenting the summer's research to the community and possibly continuing student internships for the 1999-2000 academic year. If you'd like to join the mailing list, please contact owner-uodiversity@lists.uoregon.edu.
Web page spun by Deady Spider Enterprises on 24 September 1999; author Peter B Gilkey 202 Deady Hall, Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1222, U.S.A. Phone 1-541-346-4717 Email:gilkey@darkwing.uoregon.edu