Winter/Spring 2006 |
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Letter from the Dean
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Each year, I present an annual address for Arts and Sciences faculty and staff, focusing on an issue of great importance to the College. This year my focus was diversity. Few issues have dominated debates within and about higher education as have questions about diversity, and few issues are as complex. In my remarks, I discussed the importance of diversity to the College’s core missions, focusing on the challenge of bringing an economically and socially diverse student body to the University, creating an inviting multicultural curriculum and community, and embracing difference as part of our discovery ethos. Like many of you, I am deeply concerned about children who grow up in economically disadvantaged households and are not able to use education to create opportunity. The University has a role to play in helping students prepare for and succeed in college. Programs like GEAR UP, for example, which brings selected middle school students to campus for extended visits, aim to increase minority and first-generation admissions to the UW. For underrepresented students who enroll at the UW, offerings like the Summer Bridge Program and the Office of Minority Affairs/Educational Opportunity Program tutoring and advising center are available to help them succeed. But we must also think more broadly about how we encourage students. We must ask, “Are we providing an environment that is inviting and supportive? Is there a sense of community in which the individual feels that he or she belongs? Does our curriculum include material and examples that provide connections to the diverse cultures and histories of our students?” These questions are important for all students. Programs like the Curriculum Transformation Project (CTP)—now the Center for Curriculum Transformation—have helped infuse broader cultural awareness into the curriculum. The goal is to treat multicultural issues as part of, and not apart from, the “regular” curriculum. I had the good fortune to be among the first faculty to participate in a CTP workshop; I discovered that by broadening my course’s perspective, I strengthened its theoretical underpinnings. I am pleased to report that many efforts to address diversity at the UW have been at the initiative of students themselves. Three examples of such student initiative can be found in this issue of A&S Perspectives. A group of astronomy graduate students has created a program, Pre-MAP, to encourage underrepresented students to consider careers in science. The program provides mentoring, research opportunities, and a supportive community of peers with similar interests. At the initiative of students in the group FirstNations@UW, the University now has a course about pow wow, with participants exploring the history and traditions of pow wow and interning at the UW Winter Pow Wow. The course, offered through American Indian Studies, attracts a large and unusually diverse group of students. Study abroad programs continue to be an excellent window to other cultures. Students in a human rights seminar in Guatemala were so moved by the experience that, upon their return to Seattle, they began raising funds to help the children they had met. Six months later, they are still dedicated to this effort. As these examples demonstrate, much progress has been made to address diversity in the College. We should celebrate these gains. But we are far short of our goal to be the institution that changes the world by changing ourselves. There are no easy answers. But with commitment, perseverance, and creativity, we can become that institution. Sincerely, David Hodge [For the complete text of David Hodge’s annual address, “Advancing Diversity in the College of Arts and Sciences,” click here. ] [Winter/Spring 2006 - Table of Contents]
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