RECOMMENDATION 3: IMPLEMENT DIVERSITY INITIATIVES.

Discussion of the problem: Environments receptive to difference are environments receptive to women, and vice versa. The more diverse an institution, the more open to a variety of cultural values and practices, the more likely it is to be a place in whose work women can participate fully. Our universities are in various ways attempting to become more diverse and more sustainably pluralistic communities, although with mixed success to date. New England Land Grant University Women welcome and support these endeavors, which promote equity for women of color, for women with disabilities, for women of all sexual/affectional preferences, indeed for all women.

The full benefit of diversity depends upon our universities' taking the broadest possible view of it. Initiatives should therefore include not only efforts on behalf of the current Affirmative Action populations, but also of other groups for whom Equal Opportunity at our universities has yet to become a reality, such as working class people, recent immigrant groups, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered persons, and underrepresented ethnic populations historically significant in our own states, such as Franco-Americans and Portuguese-Americans.

Vision for the Year 2000:

1. University facilities and programs are invitingly accessible to persons with disabilities.

2. There are critical masses of women, persons of color, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented populations in all units and ranks, and in leadership positions, among students, staff, and faculty.

3. There are equal numbers of men and women in the underrepresented groups.

4. Women and other Affirmative Action populations are represented in all bodies of university governance in proportion to their numbers among the governed.

5. The university budget for student services/student activities is devoted to the interests and needs of non-traditional students in proportion to their numbers in the student body.

6. The university has demonstrated innovation in significantly incorporating international students and staff, and their families, into university life.

7. The retention rates among underrepresented groups are not lower than those of other students and employees.

8. The office responsible for oversight of the university’s equal opportunity policies and affirmative action plans has the resources and the authority necessary to carry out its charge, and is regarded by the campus community as a highly effective compliance office.