Study Circles focused on diversity begin at university

By Kim Billings, Media Relations

Yesterday marked the beginning of the second in a series of study circles, this time focused on diversity. Last semester, faculty, students, staff and members of the Durham community participated in study circles on student behavior and alcohol. This was the third round of study circles at UNH since 1997. As of last week, about 80 people from UNH and the town had signed up to participate.

The weekly candid dialogues are designed to bring the community together to talk about challenges facing higher education in general, but to focus on UNH community issues in particular.

“Any challenge begins with an examination of our own experiences and beliefs around a particular issue,” explains Bruce Mallory, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, whose office is co-sponsoring the series. “The study circle helps to focus those experiences and beliefs by offering a deliberate question to begin conversations that are essential for identifying effective solutions leading to change.”

The question being posed in this series is:
The compelling interest of diversity: How should UNH meet its educational and civic responsibilities to foster an inclusive campus community?

The topic is in the context of last year’s Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan as well as New Hampshire legislators’ attempts in recent years to restrict UNH’s commitment to recruiting more students and faculty of color.

Each study circle is comprised of between eight and 12 people from different backgrounds and viewpoints. The study circles on diversity will be used to inform future decisions about UNH’s efforts to assure a diverse and inclusive community. The two-hour weekly conversations take place over the next four weeks, and a report on findings and recommendations is expected by early spring.

According to Mallory, the Academic Plan specifically calls for the university to sustain and expand its efforts to increase diversity at UNH (see sidebar), and a series of recommendations on how to achieve greater diversity will be one result of the study circles.

“While we have been moving forward in our efforts to increase recruitment and retention of people of color at UNH, we realize that our commitment must include stronger actions,” President Ann Weaver Hart says. “We’ve never made concessions to the fact we live in a predominantly white culture. In fact, it is part of our mission as educators to provide our students with ongoing cultural and racial opportunities that they will find once they graduate from UNH.”

Recent accomplishments
The number of students of color has increased every year, from 431 undergraduate and graduate degree candidates in the fall of 2000 to 643 this past semester. Ten years ago, there were 356 undergraduate and graduate degree candidates.



These totals do not include UNH’s international student population, which represents more than 20 countries from around the world.
UNH’s student population is now more diverse than New Hampshire’s nonwhite population. However, Mark Rubinstein, vice president for student and academic services, notes, “We are still not as diverse as the region we serve nor as diverse as the world for which we are preparing our students.

“The university’s commitment to create a more diverse student population is an integral component of our educational philosophy,” Rubinstein says. “We can only fully prepare our students to succeed in the world when the context for that preparation reflects the diversity of the world that students will encounter.”

The number of people of color at UNH has increased in all employee ranks: faculty, operating staff and PAT staff over the past several years.

For example, in the faculty ranks, the number has more than doubled from 30 in FY98 to 64 in FY03. Institutional support, from student grants to faculty support, also has increased.

Student grant funding has increased from $842,699 in FY99 to more than $1.8 million this fiscal year. Support for underrepresented faculty did not exist prior to FY00. The president’s office began funding this initiative that year with $56,500. Last year, that amount grew to $253,186.

In addition, UNH is now committing $60,000 per year for five years to the McNair Program, which supplements federal dollars in order to serve more McNair Scholars and strengthen the resources available to those students enrolled in the program intended to increase the participation of underrepresented and first-generation students in graduate education.

More than numbers
But UNH officials say the solutions need to go beyond merely increasing numbers. “Much of the work we do, and need to continue to do, will focus on the issue of climate,” Hart says. “We not only need to have a critical mass, we need to make sure we have the support mechanisms in place for underrepresented groups, and that those mechanisms are effective.”

Both the Affirmative Action office and Human Resources work more closely with departments to ensure that applicant pools include underrepresented groups, and HR also assists spouses/partners of minority faculty and staff to find work at UNH. Staff at the Advising and Career Center also offer career counseling to spouses/partners of minority faculty and staff.

During UNH’s observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, more than 20 faculty and nearly 300 students registered for the affirmative action discussion, “From Brown to Michigan.”

The Connect program, now 10 years old, is an orientation program designed for students of color. It has grown from 20 participants a decade ago to 60 students last year. It also has grown from a three-day program to a full week of academic enrichment and social activities.

The program was expanded a few years ago to include Re-Connect, which is a series of programs throughout the academic year on social and academic adjustment. Students who participate in the Connect program subsequently have higher GPAs than those who do not.

For the first time this year, Connect is sponsoring an academic enrichment event for students of color so they can learn more about UROP, IROP, the Study Abroad program and other opportunities. In the future, the Connect program hopes to establish a career network, with alumni mentors and internships.
A new initiative in the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs will connect students of color with Seacoast area nonprofits to encourage civic engagement and involvement.

Study Circle, full circle
By the end of this semester, Mallory says the university will articulate its continuing commitment to diversity. It will come not only from the information gleaned from the study circles this month, but from other discussions and sources.

“We do this,” he said, “in order to hold ourselves accountable to the fact that UNH has not yet achieved the degree of diversity that we really need in a university community. We have made great strides, to be sure, but we have a long way to go.”