The Diversity Action Council was formed to facilitate and develop a diversity plan. The Council's plan focuses on four major areas:

• Enhancing the institutional curriculum, and scholarship
• Increasing numbers of students from underrepresented groups
• Increasing numbers of faculty, classified staff, and administrators from underrepresented groups
• Strengthening connections with diverse communities in the region.

The council has defined what the set of actions in each of these four areas must look like in order to contribute to reaching the goal of creating an environment where diversity enriches the educational experience, promotes personal growth, strengthens communities and the workplace and enhances an individual's personal and professional opportunities. The actions in this plan meet the following criteria:

• They have the potential to make a substantive difference at Portland State University within 3-5 years (powerful actions)
• They involve all elements of the university (pervasive actions)
• They contribute to systemic change (durable effects)
• They will produce visible and lasting results (impactful actions)
• They build on the work of the Campus Climate Commission and other campus initiatives (enduring commitments).

Building Upon the Work of the Past

The council appreciates the opportunity to offer its suggestions toward achieving enhanced campus climate for faculty, staff, students and administrators. Many of these actions build on work that has been underway at the university for some time. We realize that these actions require new investments and reallocations throughout the university. The council recognizes the importance of a visible institutional commitment of resources to the success of this plan, and believes that commitment should be made visible throughout the university's budget development processes, as well as through allocations for special projects and university-wide activities.

Assigning Accountability for the Actions

The council recommends that the President and Provost assign accountability for the actions recommended over the next 3-5 years to the appropriate units and/or individuals. That accountability will include reporting annually on progress to the Diversity Action Council and the Executive Committee (DAC chair, Vice Provost for Campus Initiatives, President and Provost).

This plan identifies what actions are necessary to meet the university's goals, but the council deliberately decided not to prescribe how units or individuals should implement the actions. The council respects the creativity, capacity, and commitment that exist in the community and anticipates that the presence of a focused and explicit plan will guide all parts of the university in creating a truly diverse educational institution. The council also is prepared to provide consultation, referrals, and assistance to units who need support in taking the actions outlined for them.

The Role of the Diversity Action Council

The Diversity Action Council suggests that its role in the future have three major dimensions:

1. to annually review progress on achieving the Diversity Action Plan with the responsible groups, suggest midcourse corrections or alternative actions, and issue annual reports to the community on progress on the plan;
2. to administer funds (approximately $45,000/year) that support the campus-wide initiatives assigned to it: recruiting students (with Graduate School, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, Admissions and Records), providing mini-grants for collaborative scholarship about diversity to be disseminated to the campus community and beyond (in consultation with Faculty Development Committee), and providing faculty, student, and staff development to promote infusion of diversity into the curricula, classroom management and communication skills, while advocating race relations, tolerance, and cultural competency (with CAE, Affirmative Action, and OAA), and providing support to form a resource team to help with minority faculty recruitment and retention;
3. to provide consultation, connections, and encouragement to groups across the campus who are working to advance this initiative.

The Four Goal Areas:

Goal #1:

Create an institutional environment, curricula and scholarship that enhance learning about diversity and respect for diversity and equality.

Goal #2:

Increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who apply, are accepted, enroll and graduate such that, at a minimum, they are represented proportionally to regional (for in-state students) and national (for out-of-state students) populations.

Goal #3:

Increase the number of persons from underrepresented groups in the faculty, staff, and administration so that they are represented in proportion to their current availability in relevant job pools and/or their representation in the region.

Goal #4:

Increase the number of sustained and mutually beneficial connections with diverse communities.