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Diversity Strategic PlanNOVEMBER 2004MissionHamilton College provides talented and diverse students with a superior education in a residential environment. By emphasizing intellectual breadth, effective oral and written communication, academic rigor, intense student-faculty engagement, superior advising, and personal responsibility, the College enables students to expand their knowledge and hone their ability to think critically, analytically, and creatively. The goal of this educational model is to prepare all Hamilton students to thrive as fully engaged citizens of a diverse and increasingly complex world. In keeping with this goal, Hamilton is duly committed to distinguishing itself as a living and learning community that values and exemplifies the inclusion of diverse persons and perspectives. Principles/ValuesThe goals and strategies outlined below are designed to support and promote the following principles and values: * All students, faculty and staff should experience a welcoming, inclusive environment that encourages them to fulfill their full potential * The College culture should foster learning and relationship building through clear and respectful communication * The College should emphasize the intellectual significance of diverse perspectives, as an avenue to critical reflection on one's place in the world. * Diversity efforts should benefit the Hamilton community as a whole * Diversity efforts should be integrated into the fabric of the College community What We Mean By DiversityHamilton seeks a campus community that reflects the diversity of the United States and the broader world. This includes but is not limited to racial and ethnic diversity, gender, sexual orientation, dis/ability, class origin, religion, and nationality. We also value diversity of perspectives as an integral component of a thriving intellectual community. The Case For DiversityBackground to the InitiativeThe Hamilton College Strategic Plan (June 2002) embraced the importance of fostering a diverse campus community as essential both to our strategic objectives and to our providing an excellent education for all of our students. The Strategic Plan expressed these commitments in part in response to the Report of the Diversity Task Force (April 2001). This document builds on the essential insights of that report. The senior administration of Hamilton College understands, and the United States Supreme Court has by now endorsed, the view that diversity of persons and perspectives is required for a thriving intellectual community. Such diversity is required for the kind of educational experience that the Strategic Plan envisions our continuing to provide for our students: one that develops the most sophisticated communication skills and thereby trains our students to be active citizens in a complex and variegated world. Hamilton has made notable strides in diversifying its student body and its faculty in recent years, in terms of persons and perspectives, but much room for improvement remains. As a rural liberal arts college, Hamilton faces special challenges in this respect, and our goal is to meet these challenges aggressively. Because the instructional mission of the College is its defining mission, and because our diversity objectives are tied fundamentally to that instructional mission, President Stewart has placed central responsibility for fulfilling our diversity objectives in the office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, David Paris. It is clear, however, that fulfilling these objectives requires coordinated effort on the part of a great many dedicated members of the College community, including most importantly the Division of Student Life and the Admissions office. President Stewart has established a Diversity Coordinator, reporting to the VPAA/Dean of the Faculty, to coordinate and support the work of all campus constituencies in this effort. The Diversity Coordinator, Associate Dean of the Faculty Kirk Pillow, charged in particular with diversity initiatives regarding faculty recruitment, works closely with the Office for Multicultural Affairs; Gordon Hewitt, Director of Institutional Research; and with Todd Franklin, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Faculty Mentor for the Posse program, who, in concert with the Admission Office, focuses on initiatives regarding student recruitment and campus climate. As our initiatives proceed, the aim will be to bring more community members into the process, and hence develop an array of "diversity champions" working together at the College. External Trends and Internal Data Many of our peer institutions and competitor schools have understood for some time the educational value of a diverse campus community. Diversity of persons and perspectives across the student body, faculty, administration, and staff of an educational institution enriches educational opportunities for everyone, and most importantly, prepares our students to be sophisticated participants in an increasingly diverse American citizenry and workforce. Hamilton belongs to the circle of premiere American educational institutions integrating diversity into our educational mission, but there is ample room for improvement on this score. For example, according to Fall 2003 statistics, 13.0% of our students were then people of color. This compares to a peer average of 18.6% at that time. Even after factoring in Hamilton's most diverse ever Class of 2008, composed of 17% students of color, we lag behind our peers on the average, and we lag far behind some of our peers (e.g. Amherst, Haverford, Swarthmore, Williams) celebrated for their recruitment of students of color. (Happily, we have fared as well as or better than, in this respect, some of our more immediate peers, such as Bates, Colby, and Colgate.) There is substantial room for improvement, not for the sake of statistics, but for the sake of creating for all of our students the educational environment and outcomes envisioned in the Strategic Plan. International students are an important component of campus diversity, as well. In Fall 2003, 4.7% of our students were international, compared to a peer average of 5.9%. There is room for improvement in our recruitment of these students. With regard to faculty recruitment, according to Fall 2003 statistics, 14.4% of Hamilton faculty were persons of color. This compares to a peer average of 13.7%. While this fact may appear praiseworthy, Hamilton lags notably behind peers such as Haverford and Mount Holyoke who have worked assiduously at attracting faculty of color. More importantly, the Hamilton percentage includes numerous visiting faculty in sabbatical replacement positions, many of whom, however great their contributions while on the Hill, will not have a lasting opportunity to contribute to our educational mission. When one studies all together the composition of our student body, the composition of our faculty, and our successes at providing a transformative educational experience as a residential liberal arts college, one set of facts among all stands out with regard to our diversity initiative. Each Spring the Senior Survey asks our graduating seniors, among other things, about their overall satisfaction with the education they received at Hamilton. The Spring 2004 results are typical: 91.5 percent of graduating seniors responded that they were either "generally" or "very" satisfied with their educational experience, with little notable variation across ethnic or racial category. Yet the seniors are also asked whether they would relive their college experience at Hamilton. 64% of majority white students responded that they "probably" or "definitely" would; only 49% of African-American students, for example, said they would. This difference makes clear what the goal of our diversity initiatives should be: to assure excellent outcomes for all of our students. Achieving this goal requires progress on several fronts: developing the organizational capacity to pursue our diversity efforts; further diversifying the student body; enhancing the student life experience; further enriching the academic experience of our students; enhancing the cross-cultural experiences of our students; and further diversifying the Hamilton faculty, administration, and staff. Goals and StrategiesThese goals and strategies are intended to advance our efforts to make Hamilton a community more diverse in persons and perspectives, for the purpose of best preparing our students for active engagement in an increasingly diverse world. Because of the current composition of the campus community, Hamilton is particularly committed to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of its student body, faculty, administration and staff. Develop sufficient organizational capacity to support our diversity initiatives The College must bring clarity of vision, dedicated diversity champions, and commitment of resources into concert in order to advance its diversity goals. * Determine which College policies and practices support diversity and which impede progress. * Evaluate and implement recommendations for structural changes to the Dean of the Faculty and Dean of Students divisions and functions * Dedicate sufficient resources to implementation of diversity strategies (e.g., a Diversity Endowment) * Increase individual skills through training and other development efforts Further diversify the student body Representational numbers are only part of the diversity picture, but our students of color consistently relate the challenges and drawbacks of coming from underrepresented groups to join a substantially white and upper-middle class College community. Increasing their representation will improve not only their educational and residential experience; a more diverse student body will instill greater cultural sophistication, understanding and self-awareness in all of our students. * Develop a comprehensive diversity recruitment plan that includes marketing, publications and Admissions Office travel components * Provide an attractive and personalized campus-visit experience for all potential students * Assess admissions and financial aid programs and policies * Evaluate student experiences of, and the College's relationship with, Posse and HEOP, in particular, as well as other programs designed to increase diversity Enrich the student life experience to insure full engagement and satisfaction of all students at Hamilton College As a residential liberal arts college, the instructional mission of the College must be well integrated with the residential experience of our students. Through this symbiosis of academics and residential life, our remarkably high academic satisfaction results can enhance the social/residential satisfaction of students of all backgrounds. * Designate first-year residence halls and implement living/learning opportunities for students beginning in the first year * Increase the multicultural component of the first-year Residential Life program * Develop an alumni mentoring program for students of color * Encourage a student-initiated peer mentoring program for students of color * Increase recruiting efforts designed to include more students from diverse backgrounds in the Adirondack Adventure program * Enable student leaders to become effective diversity champions Enrich the social and cultural experience by creating spaces and promoting activities that affirm difference while fostering greater cross-cultural interaction. The Assistant Dean of Students for Multicultural Affairs already programs a great variety of events that affirm and celebrate diversity. These efforts should continue, while also extending the reach of these events into all segments of the student population. * Centralize student group office and meeting spaces in ways that reflect and promote inclusivity * Encourage and facilitate more co-programming between student organizations * Promote the creation of more campus wide traditions and events specifically aimed at fostering and demonstrating campus unity * Strengthen the ALCC (in its current, or a comparable, location) as a place of comfort and cultural self-expression for all Black and Latino/a students * Provide adequate spaces for all student cultural organizations Enrich the academic experience to incorporate multiple perspectives and to enhance students' skills at relating to those different from themselves Many curricular initiatives are already active with regard to diversity; further efforts will enhance the learning experience of our students and afford greater opportunity for them and for their professors to learn from and to teach from their differences. * Encourage and support coursework by underrepresented students across the academic divisions * Provide faculty with opportunities to increase their pedagogical and classroom discussion skills relative to diversity * Further incorporate issues of diversity into the curriculum * Create new courses and/or more fully develop existing courses in which multiple perspectives are a key component * Fully utilize cross-disciplinary formats to promote understanding and skills related to diversity Further diversify the faculty, administration, and staff All of our students crave exposure to and learning from a faculty as diverse as the American cultural landscape into which they will graduate. Enhancing the diversity of the College workforce generally will enhance our educational mission while also making our community a thriving intellectual one in which everyone feels welcome and valued. * Conduct open-area and open-rank searches for faculty hires * Explore target of opportunity hiring as a faculty recruitment strategy * Evaluate faculty, administration, and staff retirement incentives as a means to accelerate hiring of a more diverse range of employees * Enhance the ability of academic departments and other offices to identify and recruit diverse candidates; track and monitor inclusion of diverse candidates in searches * Develop and implement additional pipeline activities for all employee recruitment efforts * Support efforts to enhance quality of the work experience for all employees |
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