Diversity and Inclusion Task Force offers its recommendations
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umw.edu
By VANIA CLAY
Staff Writer
On November 6, 2017, there was a set of recommendations put forth by the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force about a variety of topics. One of these recommendations concerned the Statement of Community Values.
The current Statement of Community Values has not been updated since 2011. It can be viewed on the UMW Human Resource page.
According to the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force Recommendations document that can be found online, the first part of this two-part recommendation means to, “conduct a university wide, interdisciplinary assessment of UMW’s Statement of Community Values. Establish an interdisciplinary ad-hoc committee of students, staff, and faculty from across campus to review UMW’s Statement of Community Values, to revise it as appropriate, and to promote the new version across the University.”
The second part of the recommendations has to do with the UMW, “Statement of Guiding Principles on Diversity and Inclusion.” It calls into question if the statement should have the same status as UMW honor pledge.
In an effort to accomplish these initiatives, The Committee to Review the Statement of Community Values, led by Associate Professor of Communication Dr. Anand Rao and Dean of Student Life Cedric Rucker, have written three drafts of a revised “Statements of Community Values.” The revised statements contains two options regarding the “Statement of Guiding Principles on Diversity and Inclusion.”
The key points, from the first draft for “Statements of Community Values,” deal with intellectual inquiry, inclusive excellence & equity, respect & civility, integrity & personal accountability, and leadership, collaboration & engaged citizenship. The key points of the second drafts spell out the acronym, IDEAL. This stands for, Intellectual inquiry, Diversity, Equity, Accountability and Leadership. The third draft address accountability, scholarship, personal integrity, inclusiveness, respect, and engagement.
The two “Statement of Guiding Principles on Diversity and Inclusion” options are a revised text that offers an updated point-of-view and wording. The second option is to do away with the “Statement of Guiding Principles on Diversity and Inclusion” all together, because according to a PDF on the UMW website titled three draft statements, it has been “integrated into the new draft revisions of the ‘Statement of Community Values.’”
The committee is asking for feedback on the drafts from the Eagle community. Any feedback on which, elements, language, and what students and faculty feel should be included or excluded.
(Link Online only)
Feedback can be given via https://www.umw.edu/diversity/
