Members of the Campus Diversity and Climate Committee met Monday to approve the makeup of a special ad hoc committee that will create the next University of Wisconsin-Madison strategic diversity plan.
The ad hoc committee will consist of twenty voting members, with equal representation for faculty, academic staff, classified staff and students. Additionally, there will be five ex-officio non-voting members who will represent the Madison community. The CDCC approved the makeup of the committee by a 6-5 vote.
Various shared governance bodies will appoint members from their own constituencies by Dec. 12. The bodies include the Faculty Senate, Academic Staff Assembly, Council for Non-Represented Classified Staff and Associated Students of Madison student government
CDCC member Jonathan Gramling expressed concern over whether appointing members to the ad hoc committee by shared governance groups would be the best way to ensure the committee is composed of members who represent broad groups of campus diversity.
“If everyone is talking in isolation, that’s where you run the risk of lack of diverse representation,” Gramling said.
However, CDCC student representative Britt Moes said if each shared governance body focuses on bringing five diverse appointees, the committee will be diverse no matter what. She added it is more important that committee members are able to advocate for a number of diverse groups, rather than just specifically the race, gender or other group with which they identify.
“I want to know who’s going to advocate for a certain thing which is way more important than whether the body looks diverse or has diverse qualities. We’re looking for advocates,” Moes said.
