An active community of learning

By David Fulton, Chancellor, IU East

Fulton

As many of our students do not encounter diversity in their daily lives, we try to ensure that while on campus they cannot avoid it. Years ago, the faculty at IU East committed themselves to a learning objective to prepare our students “to be able to understand, accept and relate to people of different backgrounds.”

To that end, we have increasingly incorporated diversity in the curriculum, teaching it in many classes across the disciplines. In addition, we boast today a number of programs that contain a strong diversity component and that take our students, faculty and administrators far from their home culture—programs in or with Mexico, Chinle (Arizona), New Mexico, Belize and, most recently, the developing linkage with Namibia.

Closer to home, our faculty and students have been active participants in the annual Kokomo conference on diversity, as well as in other similar gatherings. The Teaching and Learning Center has become more active in sponsoring workshops for faculty, where the experiences from these conferences are shared with other faculty.

In recent years, we have sponsored celebrations of different cultures—Hispanic, Asian, Native American and African-American, and of women’s achievement. These activities help to create a consciousness on campus of the growing importance of diversity in our society. We have a number of student organizations, including the newly established Multi-cultural Affairs Association; we offer support for gay, lesbian and bisexual students and, through Student Support Services, we have developed an effective program to support disabled students. Additionally, we have adopted a strong policy regarding sexual harassment, which clearly defines the procedures available to those who feel subject to either harassing or discriminatory behavior on campus because of their gender.

Believing that an institution which claims to value diversity should look diverse, we have tried hard to ensure the diversity of our workforce and student body. With the one exception of too few African-American faculty members, we have been successful in recruiting a diverse group of employees at all levels and classifications. We have also implemented a number of strategies to recruit minority students from our area.

Finally, we have been involved with the community in multiple ways to promote the goal of diversity, such as inclusion and active engagement of faculty, staff and students in various local programs focusing on multicultural issues. Still, we can do a better job with the community if we improve communication links between the campus and various community organizations.

In order to coordinate our many activities aimed at enriching and promoting diversity on campus, we have created a Diversity Cabinet, a body in which representatives of the various groups working on diversity issues can come together monthly to talk about our challenges and our progress. I am certain that the Diversity Cabinet will substantially add to our efforts to improve the communication among people involved and heighten the awareness of others’ lifestyles in the communities we serve.