Representatives from the committee responsible for drafting an updated University of Wisconsin-Madison Diversity Plan fielded questions from Associated Students of Madison Student Council members and detailed the future of campus diversity efforts Wednesday.
In the current draft of the plan, the Ad-Hoc Diversity Planning Committee found nine areas where campus diversity needs improvement. Each goal is accompanied by recommendations for plan implementation as well as accountability measures for how each goal will be enforced.
Co-chair of the planning committee Ryan Adserias said this plan focuses more on changing the culture associated with diversity than improving diversity statistics in the university, which was a characteristic of the 2008 Plan.
“You can’t change a culture overnight, you can’t even really change it in a year,” Adserias said, emphasizing the plan is not intended for yielding short-term results.
Though some council members questioned the draft’s occasional vagueness, co-chair Ruth Litovsky said by explicitly detailing each element of the plan university members would lose a possibility for creativity in the plan’s enactment and may feel the issue of tackling diversity to be confined to set tasks.
Litovsky said engagement sessions regarding concerns and comments for the plan are scheduled for early April, following the release of the document to campus members later this week. After making changes, the entire plan will be up for a vote at a Faculty Senate meeting in May. Faculty Senate approval will not prohibit alterations.
“It’s not a document that will live on the shelf and will be forgotten,” Litovsky said. “It will be an intermittent framework.”
Student Council members also passed a resolution to request the UW Athletic Department put more funding toward the recently approved Recreational Sports Master Plan.
The resolution, introduced by ASM Chair David Gardner, highlights the group’s goal of ensuring college affordability. In an effort to decrease the contribution currently fronted by student segregated fees, ASM requests the department put forward a comparable amount of funding, between $30 million and $127 million, as presented by the chancellor and the state.
Campus members also spoke to Student Council on behalf of a motion asking the university to divest from fossil fuel companies, citing concern for continuing climate problems that stem from their use.
A decision on the resolution was tabled until after spring break, as various council members said extra time for research would allow for a more informed decision.
