The second and final day of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Diversity Forum featured an address from an education expert on diversity, a human scavenger hunt and a session for participants to create ideas for the future campus Diversity Plan.
Ruth Litovsky and Ryan Adserias, co-chairs of UW-Madison’s Diversity Committee, led a discussion with attendees about establishing a diversity plan on campus.
Officials are in the process of creating a campus-wide plan to bolster diversity on campus after the previous Diversity Plan expired in 2008.
The plan will be a collaborative effort involving work from various campus community members, both Litovsky and Adserias said. It will also address diversity beyond ethnicity and incorporate facets of identity including thinking styles, physical abilities and life experience, according to Adserias.
In small group brainstorming sessions after the presentation, participants discussed components they wanted to see included in the Diversity Plan. Attendees suggested incorporating items including a more diverse staff and a larger budget devoted exclusively to diversity.
Many participants addressed the challenge of creating changes on campus when they felt the school and state did not have a high amount of diversity.
Katherine Lipper, a policy and legal advisor at the consulting form Education Counsel gave the night’s keynote addresses and stressed how universities should strive to represent minorities fairly.
In addition, she said schools should include high numbers of under-represented minorities in order to “achieve the educational benefits of diversity, and so the student feels like an individual, not a representative for his or her race.”
At a breakout session later in the day, two UW-Madison officials discussed how changes in higher education will lead to innovations in learning and teaching.
Vice Chancellor and UW-Extension Interim Provost Aaron Brower said higher education has changed in numerous ways. For instance, he said while enrollment has increased and more students are able to attend college, state funding has drastically diminished. In addition, a large number of students nationwide are older and returning to college.
In response to many of these changes, Brower and Jeffrey Russell, vice provost for lifelong learning and dean of the division of continuing studies, both said technology could he a useful tool.
Brower gave the example of the UW Flexible Option implemented by the UW-Extension, which allows students to earn a degree by learning and taking assessments on their own terms.
Provost Paul DeLuca capped off the forum by welcoming Chancellor Rebecca Blank and new faculty and discussing the future campus climate.
“The landscape is changing,” Deluca said. “The structure is in place to take us to the next level.”
Megan Stoebig, Dana Kampa and Jackie Bannon contributed to this report.
