Harker addresses faculty on budget, diversity issues
Dallas G. Hoover, professor of animal and food sciences, was presented the Faculty Senate Exemplary Service Award for his work with the Faculty Senate over a 16-year period. Photo by Ambre Alexander
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12:08 p.m., April 24, 2009----University of Delaware President Patrick Harker updated members of the faculty on the implications of the state budget situation during the General Faculty Meeting, held Monday, April 20, in Gore Hall.

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Harker also discussed the University's diversity efforts at the meeting, which was held before the regularly scheduled Faculty Senate meeting.

“We have submitted cuts to the state, which we assume they'll take, and, as the state works to fill a still-gaping budget hole, we should be prepared for cuts above those submitted,” Harker said. “There are Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) meetings scheduled for May and June, and it's premature to say much before they are concluded.”

Diversity Task Force and Action Council

Before introducing Diversity Task Force co-chairs Margaret Andersen and Araya Debessay, Harker said faculty members contributed significantly to the final report of the task force.

“Your experiences and opinions helped shape it, and your honesty and candor made it effective as a working document,” Harker said. “I put the emphasis on 'working,' because that is what the report is; it's a blueprint for enhancing and institutionalizing diversity on campus.”

Harker said that the report's recommendations call for specific actions centered around four broad goals, including:

  • Building and nurturing a welcoming campus climate;
  • Ensuring equity, inclusion and representation;
  • Promoting education and scholarship for a diverse world; and
  • Monitoring the future and assuring accountability and institutional vitality.

“The last goal is particularly important to me, because it acknowledges that without the administration's unambiguous commitment to the policies and practices that build diversity, the entire report, its philosophical underpinnings, as well as its recommendations, are in jeopardy,” Harker said. “My commitment is very clearly tied to the Diversity Action Council, which I've convened to operationalize the task force's recommendations.”

Chairing the Diversity Action Council are Tom Apple, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who will become provost on July 1, and J.J. Davis, vice president for administration. Council members are Margaret Andersen, David Brond, Araya Debessay, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Michael Gilbert, Lou Hirsh, Edgar Johnson, James Jones, J.P. Laurenceau, Debra Hess Norris, Larry Peterson, Monika Shafi, John Xiao and Patricia Wilson, ex officio.

A number of medium- and long-term goals will require significant work during the next 12 to 18 months, and the council already is drawing up a request for diversity training for senior faculty and staff.

While much work needs to be done, Harker said the University has a lot of things firmly in its favor, including an intellectual integrity and curiosity that lends itself to a rigorous examination, as well as a strategic plan predicated on the very principle of diversity.

Joining a University whose administrators, faculty and staff are wholly committed to the causes of equity and inclusion are students who have never known anything but a multiracial, multiethnic and multicultural world, Harker said.

“They understand that homogeneity isn't just impractical; it's impossible,” Harker said. “The students also understand that our differences don't threaten this community, they strengthen it.”

Debessay, professor of accounting and MIS, noted that a definition of diversity refers both to processes of fairness, equity and inclusion, to the different perspectives that we think are essential to the educational enterprise, and to the various affinities that people may have based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religion and ability status.

“The effort that the University is making to promote diversity is rooted in the belief that the fundamental mission of the University is intellectual production and the education of new generations of citizens who must be prepared to live and work in an increasingly diverse world,” Debessay said. “This diversity encompasses the recognition and appreciation of the different backgrounds, values and ideas of those who comprise our campus, as well as a commitment to ensuring that all people on our campus are treated according to principles of fairness, civility, dignity and equity.”

Andersen, Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Sociology, noted that the promotion of education and scholarship for a diverse world calls for a goal of providing a first year experience that communicates the importance of diversity to students right from the start.

“We need to infuse diversity into the First Year Experience (FYE) program,” Andersen said. “We also need to expose all students to a full array of campus events, both intellectual and social.”

Faculty Senate Meeting

Dallas G. Hoover, professor of animal and food sciences, was presented with the Faculty Senate Exemplary Service Award for having served the senate in several different capacities over a 16-year period, as well as serving eight years on its executive committee. Hoover never missed either a Faculty Senate meeting or a committee meeting during that time.

A new name for a college, the adoptions of several new majors and a required breadth course requirement for all majors were among the items approved by the Faculty Senate during its regular meeting.

Avron Abraham, associate professor of health, nutrition and exercise sciences, and faculty director of University Studies and Academic Enrichment, gave a report on the progress of the First Year Experience (FYE).

Beginning in the fall of 2009, all freshmen students entering UD will be enrolled in a class that will be designated as their First Year Seminar. About 80 sections of a University-based, one credit faculty-led seminar (UNIV 101) will be offered to approximately 1,600 students from a variety of academic majors.

“The expectation is that each seminar will be unique in that the faculty member will develop the topic based on personal interest/expertise, while being cognizant that the theme of these seminars is 'The first step for UD students on the path to becoming contributing global citizens,'” Abraham said. “All students enrolled in these seminars will be asked to read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and Oliver Relin, a compelling personal account of how one man has worked to make a difference by building schools in the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Abraham said the book was chosen by an FYE advisory committee because members said they believe it provides a unique opportunity for students to begin to address questions not only related to that part of the world, but also about personal meaning, transition and passion. It is also hoped, Abraham noted, that such seminars “will specifically embrace the concept of diversity within the greater United States as well as countries and cultures around the world.”

The fact that the UNIV 101 seminar is led by a faculty member who will work closely with a peer mentor and others will help ensure that the first semester is successful and will provide the foundation for future success, Abraham said.

“It is an opportunity for faculty to form a meaningful relationship with a small group of freshmen students around a topic of their mutual interest,” Abraham said. “Peer mentors and others will work with you to provide important information related to specific transition and coping skills, which help address many of the concerns students have when leaving home and entering college.”

Abraham invited interested faculty to contact him at (302) 831-8742 or to e-mail him at [avron@udel.edu].

Resolutions approved include:

  • The formation of a new college from the merger of the Department of Geography and the College of Marine and Earth Studies to be named the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment.
  • The provisional establishment for five years, of a new Baccalaureate of Science in Energy and Environmental Policy, effective Sept. 1, 2009.
  • The provisional five-year establishment of a new major leading to the distributed bachelor of arts degree in environmental studies.
  • The provisional five-year establishment of a new major leading to a bachelor of arts degree in public policy, effective Sept. 1, 2009.
  • The provisional five-year establishment of a new graduate program leading to the master's degree in disaster science and management, and the provisional seven-year establishment of a new program leading to the Ph.D. in disaster science and management, effective Sept. 1, 2009.
  • The permanent approval of the Master of Arts in Education in the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy.

The senators also approved a resolution that, beginning with the 2010-2011 academic year, a list of courses submitted by the colleges will be designated as meeting University breadth requirements, and that all students will be required to complete a minimum of 12 credits from the list of breadth courses.

Under the resolution, to meet the University breadth requirements, all students will be required to take a minimum of three credits, with a minimum grade of C-minus, in each of the following areas: the creative arts and humanities; history and cultural change; social and behavioral sciences; and mathematics, natural sciences and technology.

A standing Faculty Senate subcommittee, with representation from all the colleges and reporting to the Senate Undergraduate Studies Committee, would provide the oversight of placement of breadth courses in the appropriate categories, and ensure that the intent of breadth remains inclusive while maintaining a substantial list of courses that encourage exploration by students in areas outside of their major.

The next meeting of the Faculty Senate, which will include the election of officers and a presentation by Scott Douglass, UD executive vice president, will be held at 4 p.m., Monday, May 11, in 104 Gore Hall.

For more information on the Faculty Senate, visit the Web site.

Article by Jerry Rhodes

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