Diversity

North Seattle Community College was fortunate to have been represented at this year’s NCORE event in Chicago. The participants included Ron Woods (Chair of DAC), David Bittenbender (Human Resources), and Stephanie Langlie (Assistant to the Chair and Student at North). It is with excitement and enthusiasm that we report the event as a success and we have been able to bring back exciting tools and “best practices” for our campus community.

We were encouraged by the workshops and seminars that were presented at NCORE and as we receive additional information via e-mail, we will be posting them here on the DAC website. Please visit the important links at right as they contain useful information related to North’s Mission Statement with respect to Diversity. We also look forward to presenting this information at opportune times in the future.

"To fail to ensure social and intellectual diversity at the University of Chicago is to fail to realize our educational and research missions in a fundamental way." (From the introduction to the 2003-04 Annual Report of the Provost’s Initiative on Minority Issues)

Provost Richard Saller commissioned the Provost’s Initiative on Minority Issues (PIMI) in January of 2003 to perform a comprehensive review of all issues related to enhancing diversity at the University and to make substantive recommendations as to how we might improve our ability to recruit and retain students, faculty and staff of color. In charging the committee—co-chaired by Professor Ken Warren and Vice President and Dean of Students in the University Steve Klass—the Provost recognized "that the University should do a better job of systematically evaluating the progress we are making on issues related to enhancing diversity on campus because it is morally the right thing to do, and because diversity directly affects teaching and research across all disciplines."

"In addition, cultivating a more diverse student body makes for substantially expanded life and academic experiences both inside and outside the classroom and prepares students to be successful in an increasingly multicultural workplace. We are extremely pleased to have this opportunity to discuss this critically important work-in-progress with our colleagues at NCORE 2006.

"Our objectives for this session are to engage in an open conversation about some of the advances we have made over the past few years as well as some of the remaining obstacles to be faced, including a candid discussion of recent campus events that have caused us to refocus our efforts and to reposition some of our ongoing initiatives.