The University of Wisconsin-Madison hosted its first Inclusive Excellence Winter Symposium Friday to continue the conversation about cultivating diversity on campus.
The keynote speaker at the event was Dr. Nancy Barcelo, President of Northern New Mexico College, who discussed her experiences leading and creating diversity and equity programs on the various college campuses she has worked on, including the University of Minnesota.
Barcelo said UW-Madison was making great progress in creating diversity programs, but said the university needs to recommit to making more substantial changes by involving everyone on campus, not just administration.
“I am pleased with the progress and the history of diversity at Wisconsin and at Minnesota,” Barcelo. “But there is a caveat: executive leadership is not enough.”
She also emphasized the need for everyone involved in improving diversity on campus, from students to staff and faculty, to work together to achieve the common goal of a more diverse campus and society.
“We are in this together,” Barcelo said. “We can’t do this work alone and we can’t not do this work.”
Additionally, universities must begin to make cultivating diversity a priority, not just an afterthought, according to Barcelo.
“Nothing is more necessary or critical to the future of our institutions [than diversity],” Barcelo said.
Barcelo also emphasized that administrators and the general public must stop looking at diversity as a problem to solve and begin seeing it as a benefit to be cultivated.
Despite all of the struggles those who pursue a more diverse campus culture have faced, Barcelo said the future is “bright” for the cause as long as everyone comes together to create a more diverse campus climate.
“I’m rather optimistic quite frankly,” she said. “That’s not to say there aren’t challenges ahead of us, but I think we have to stay the course.”
