New position to increase diversity

By Megan O'Connor

Provost Lucia Albino Gilbert sent a campus-wide e-mail on March 29 requesting nominations for a special assistant to the provost for inclusive excellence, a "position of high visibility" created to increase diversity.

"We are not behind in diversity, but we are not where we want to be," said Gilbert, who created the position.

Inclusive excellence is an ideal to increase diversity and bring awareness to areas such as underrepresented minorities, said Gilbert.

University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., said in an e-mail, "As part of our on-going commitment to diversity and inclusive excellence, I am pleased with the provost's initiative to develop this new position. It should be very helpful in integrating our current efforts around multicultural education and in designing programs to improve recruitment of faculty, staff and students and expand knowledge and appreciation of different cultures."

The position has five areas where guidance will be distributed. The first is faculty recruitment and retention. Gilbert said she wants to make progress in diversifying the faculty.

"We need a more diverse faculty and have them want to stay here," she said.

The new assistant will work to make Santa Clara "more attractive to a diverse student body," by coordinating with admissions.

Organizing on-campus programming is the third area of the position. The position would work to pool the resources of all campus organizations to create "more focused and powerful programming," Gilbert said.

The special assistant would provide multicultural training to faculty and students and work to create curriculum that represents diverse opinions.

"The position will also define itself as time goes on," said Gilbert.

An ideal candidate for this position should be interested in the responsibilities required because they connect to his or her interests as a scholar, in addition to having good connections with students and an understanding of their concerns.

Although she prefers the candidate to be interested in gender and diversity issues, that does not mean the position is not open to professors of all majors.

Gilbert was not at liberty to share which Santa Clara professors are interested in the position.

The special assistant for inclusive excellence will report directly to Gilbert but will also work with a committee of faculty, staff and students for consultation and to stay connected with the campus, said Gilbert.

In addition, Gilbert would like the special assistant to continue to teach at least one class a quarter.

The idea for the position began prior to the widely publicized "south of the border" party, but Gilbert said the incident reassured her of the need for the position.

"This incident told me, 'yes, we need this,' " she said. "I think because those events did occur the campus community is going to be more energetic on working on this."

Gilbert does not foresee the recent increase in tuition as a threat to the campus' diversity. However, she said, "This is an expensive school so we have to work harder to get a diverse school than say a state school."

Santa Clara is diverse compared to other institutions, according to Gilbert who cited the Jesuit tradition as the cause.

Santa Clara is currently diversified in both Latino and Asian students but is lacking with only 2 percent of students being black, said Gilbert.

Recommendations for the position were due by April 6. Gilbert will go on to make the final decision from among the candidates.

Contact Megan O'Connor at (408) 554-4546 or moconnor@scu.edu.