M E M O R A N D U M
DATE: September 29, 2000
TO: Members of Planning Committee on Diversity Promotion
FROM: Brian Foster, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
SUBJECT: Charge to committee
Thank you for agreeing to serve on the planning committee on “Diversity
Promotion.” This committee is a critical part of the University’s
strategic planning process. Attached is a membership list of the
committee. To give you a sense of how your work fits in the broader
strategic planning process that is underway, we have also included a brief
summary of the planning process and its calendar, along with some other
background materials. Your committee is one described in the
section called “Working Papers” and will be chaired by Ricardo Maestes,
Executive Affairs Officer. For more detail on the process,
please consult the planning web site at www.unm.edu/~unmstrat.
It may be helpful if I give you some background on what has been achieved
so far in the planning process. We have now completed several important
foundational activities that will guide the next steps:
-
UNM’s mission, vision, and value statements - a small group has reviewed
these and suggested changes.
-
environmental scan - the environmental scan examined the environment in
which UNM will exist for the next five to ten years.
-
brainstorming sessions - a series of these sessions with a wide variety
of university constituencies and community members produced a comprehensive
list of activities that the University should undertake together called
“the domain of the plan” (Your committee’s work will focus on one
sub-domain.)
It is important that you keep each of these foundation activities in mind
as the committee’s work proceeds.
Your committee is one of approximately twenty that are writing working
papers on which the rest of the planning process will be based. A list
of all of the working papers that are currently under development is appended
to this letter. All of the committee reports will receive broad public
distribution and commentary late this fall. The reports and commentary
will be the source material for the central Planning Task Force to identify
a small number of strategic directions (i.e., broad institutional goals),
which will be the main elements of the strategic plan. Each of these
strategic directions will be associated with a set of major objectives
as well as tactical means of reaching the objectives.
The charge to your committee is to:
-
Produce a working paper no more than five pages long on “Diversity Promotion;”
your topic is outlined more fully in the paragraph below.
-
Describe broadly: what are we now doing in your committee’s area?
What should we be doing? How does it all fit together? How
well are we doing it? What are the gaps in our inventory of programs
and activities in this area?
-
Please consider the entire University in your thinking, including for instance
the branch campuses, broadcast media, and the Extended University.
-
Your committee’s deliberations are likely to intersect with those of other
committees (e.g., several have technology or financial components).
It will be helpful if you communicate with other groups to understand the
nature of these common concerns and perhaps cross-reference them in your
report.
-
Consider UNM’s unique resources, strengths, and competitive advantages
in the area as well as our limitations and prospects.
-
Include a one-page set of bullets on the issues that arise in your paper
and what they mean for assessing where the University is now and where
it is or should be going. (This is in addition to the five-page report)
-
You may append some background information to the five-page report (keep
in mind the Task Force was not constituted with the kinds of expertise
needed to analyze the subject matter of your report. That is the
task of your committee, and we hope that you will present thoughtful and
grounded conclusions based on your expertise that will guide the Task Force
in its task of crafting the university’s strategic directions.)
The Planning Task Force encourages you to think broadly about your topic.
This definition of your topical focus is meant not to constrain how you
think about your subject matter, but only to demarcate the broad area that
needs to be addressed in the planning process. “Diversity Promotion” concerns
one of the most important features of New Mexico – the diversity of our
state’s population. It is a condition that enriches life in every
way, including the intellectual and cultural life of the University.
New Mexico today shows a kind and degree of diversity that will exists
more broadly in the U.S., and the ways that we incorporate it in UNM’s
daily life may set the tone for higher education in the coming decades.
Ways of learning, socializing, organizing, celebrating, teaching, and doing
scholarship are all part of our “diversity strategy,” to say nothing of
forms of curriculum, of cultural events, and of directions of research;
which are all profoundly affected by the diversity of our faculty and student
body and our many and diverse stakeholders. Our diversity is one
of our most important resources. Your committee’s charge is to examine
how we make the most of this priceless and unique competitive advantage
we enjoy at UNM. You should examine the current climate of the university
and what is needed to realize the value of diversity.
The committee is responsible for reviewing diversity programs university
wide and making recommendations for enhancing these programs such as “The
Celebration of Differences” and “The Human Awareness and Dignity Program.”
The committee should study ways of networking with other diversity programs
representing the greater New Mexican community and composed of government,
educational, and business leaders. Another role of this committee
is to study the needs of under-represented staff, faculty and administrators
on the UNM campus and offer suggestions for improvement in recruitment
and relation of under-re-resented groups. The committee should study
ways of increasing diversity training to faculty, staff, and students on
the UNM campus and use the strength of diversity to promote UNM.
It may be helpful to mention two key elements of the Plan. First,
it will be tied closely to our resource base. All objectives and
tactics must be accompanied by credible and reasonable resource scenarios.
Second, all working papers, reports, draft plans, and other materials produced
in the process will receive close public scrutiny, and all comments received
will be considered as part of the record in subsequent planning activities.
Much dissemination of the information and public comment will be accomplished
through our strategic planning web site (www.unm.edu/~unmstrat).
Again, for the Task Force and for President Gordon, and for me personally,
I want to thank you for your willingness to serve in this important role.
cc: William C. Gordon, President
Members of the Strategic Planning Task Force
Attachments:
Summary and Schedule of Planning Process
Membership list
List of Working Papers
Environmental Scan
Mission and vision statements