UMD task force calls for diversity policy, other changes

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A University of Maryland, College Park task force has recommended a set of changes that would create a comprehensive diversity policy at a school that has been forced to respond to racial incidents on campus.

Key recommendations would have the university adopt a university values statement, approve a proposed policy on threatening and intimidating conduct, develop a prevention and education initiative and conduct twice-a-year campus climate surveys.

“Data shows that the University of Maryland is a safe environment, and the University has taken additional steps in the past few months and years to increase safety measures on campus,” the report said. “However, there is a distinction between being safe and feeling safe, and the Task Force recognizes that many members of our campus community do not feel safe due to the rise in hate/bias incidents. The University needs to do more to demonstrate its commitment to safety and must act assertively against threatening and intimidating conduct.”

The task force’s recommendations head to the university senate for debate next week and, if approved, will go to President Wallace Loh. Loh and the senate appointed the Joint President/Senate Inclusion and Respect Task Force last year after several hate incidents on campus that included the murder of black Bowie State University student Richard Collins III.

The task force was charged with making recommendations on how to nurture a campus climate that is respectful and inclusive. The task force included students, faculty and staff and was co-chaired by Ja’Nya Banks, the chair of the Student Government Association’s Diversity Committee; Lucy Dalglish, dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism; and Warren Kelley, assistant vice president of student affairs.

The task force met with faculty, staff and students throughout the fall semester, including in town hall meetings and meetings with such representative groups as the Student Government Association, Graduate Student Organization and Black Faculty-Staff Association. It also accepted online input from people who did not want to speak publicly.

The task force also looked at academic research on improving the diverse climate at universities and in organizations.

Examples of efforts at schools across the country, particularly in the Big Ten and similar large research universities, were also considered by the task force.

One of the task force’s top recommendations was for the university to adopt a university values statement.

“The University of Maryland has long embraced diversity as a core value and counts a diverse community among its greatest strengths,” the report said. But, “There is no consistent understanding among faculty, staff, and students of what the University’s values are or what it means when campus leaders say certain conduct or speech violates University values.”

The proposed values statement would say that the University of Maryland aspires to be a community that is: united, respectful, secure and safe, inclusive, accountable, and empowered and open to growth.

More concretely, the report suggests developing prevention and education efforts that would be a blend of mandatory and voluntary training.

A big part of this effort could include supporting programs that already exist on campus. The task force suggested that existed programs, such as Sticks+StonesUMD, Speak Up and Speak Out Virtual Reality Bystander Intervention Program and Words of Engagement Intergroup Dialogues, be included in any program.

Much of the report draws attention to existing campus programs that are scattered and not cohesively organized.

“In a large university such as ours, programming opportunities of this nature can be highly decentralized,” the report said. “This can foster creativity and ownership but can also lead to a lack of a cohesive vision or strategy for continual improvement in these types of initiatives. Many of those who develop and deliver existing programs raised concerns about programming assessment, decentralized registration, and follow-up for participants.”

Bringing cohesion to the university’s diversity efforts could describe much of the work that has happened at the school since Collins was murdered last May in what prosecutors have called a hate crime.

Other incidents on campus included the paintings of swastikas on trash cans and a noose found in a fraternity house.

The incidents coincided with what the Anti-Defamation League has chronicled as a growing effort by white supremacist groups to disrupt college campuses and increase on-campus recruitment efforts.

Last year, Loh named Roger L. Worthington as the school’s chief diversity officer, a position he elevated to cabinet level.

The university also announced last year that it would begin to collect and publish reports of hate incidents that occur on campus; create a rapid-response team to assist victims of hate on campus; and launch a think tank focused on campus diversity.

That think tank, the Center for Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education, launched in October as a national hub for research and policy on issues related to diversity and inclusion in higher education.