University of Toledo kicks off diversity plan with open forum conversations

Diversity is a hot topic at the University of Toledo, and the administration brought the conversation to the community in the first of several forums centered on the issue.

The conversations are part of UT’s larger diversity plan, which was announced with the appointment of Dr. Willie McKether on Nov. 13. McKether said the hope for the open-forum conversations is to gain insight into what UT students, faculty, staff and community members have to say about diversity on campus so their voices can influence the new diversity plan.

McKether said a diversity plan is an official document making sure that a university has policies and procedures in place to handle issues of discrimination. The plan was one of many diversity initiatives announced by UT President Sharon Gaber.

“A diversity plan … provides a roadmap which includes policies and procedures that direct the university to ensure that it’s diverse and to ensure … that everybody, regardless of ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, religion and disability … have equal access to the university’s resources,” McKether said.

McKether explained that these meetings were just the first step in his process to write and have available to the public a draft of the diversity plan by the end of the spring semester.

One of the first of the eight scheduled discussions was held Jan. 28 in the Student Union Auditorium from 7-9 p.m.

Rachel Pointer, a first-year communication major, said she expected that the issues surrounding the assault of UT student Ray Watkins at an off-campus party last weekend would be addressed.

“It seems like the announcement for all of this thing was right after the attack happened, so it doesn’t make sense to me to be like, ‘Alright, we’re just not going to talk about this, it’s just going to be a general thing,’ ” Pointer said.

However, McKether said the event was planned many months in advance and had nothing to do with the recent assault.
“Timing is amazing,” McKether said, “but again, these discussion groups have really been in the works since last November and it just happens by chance that this event occurred right now when we started to have these discussions.”

One participant asked a question about what the university is doing in response to the assault. Kaye Patten-Wallace, senior vice president for student affairs, said that UTPD and the Toledo Police are investigating the matter and that the fraternity has been suspended without prejudice.

Patten-Wallace further explained that all matters were being handled according to the policies the university has in place and that she encourages everyone to allow the system to do its job.

“The tone of the conversations may change because of these events but it is my intent to keep the same format … but I realized if we get there, and students’ voices need to be heard in a different kind of way, then I’ve got to be willing to allow students to talk,” McKether said.

McKether said he plans to address students by asking questions and allowing them to direct the conversation so they can voice their concerns in their own way.

“I will ask them if they believe the University of Toledo is a diverse institution. I’ll ask them to think … for them personally and for any organization that they may represent … ‘Do you feel included or do you feel obsolete? Do you feel excluded?’ ” McKether said.

Participants brought up a variety of issues, including problems surrounding discrimination against women on the engineering campus, racism against Muslim women who wear hijabs, and many others involving race, sex, sexual orientation and more.

Rosalyn Whickum, a second-year communication major who attended the event, said she wanted to attend in order to hear what other students had to say and to have a safe space to address her own concerns.

“What I was primarily concerned about was the destruction of safe spaces for different groups of people, because we want to be a diverse community. I don’t want diversity to mean the end of the bubbles…” Whickum said.

Daija Thomas, a fourth-year public health major, said she thought a good solution to some of the issues the university is facing would be to mandate diversity training for all students at UT.

“As a former employee of the Division of Student Affairs, I was indeed forced to go through a safe place training, not that it was a negative thing,” Thomas said. “I do feel like everyone should be accepted on our university’s campus, including LGBTQA, but for us to not have something for multicultural students and they are equally excluded is a problem.”

After all focus groups are completed McKether stated the data from will then be compiled and he will write the diversity plan and hopefully have it available for the public to read by the end of the spring semester.

The next campus talk is a staff-oriented Campus Conversation on Diversity that will be held on Thursday, Feb. 4, from noon to 2 p.m. in Health Education Building Room 103 on the Health Science Campus.