The University Board of Visitors will convene a new committee later this week: the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.
For the past several years, the Board has run a Special Committee on Diversity, which will now become a standing committee. The committee will be co-chaired by Board members Frank Conner and Allison DiNardo.
The official language of the committee’s establishment is listed in the docket for this week’s Board meeting.
“The Committee on Diversity and Inclusion shall encourage and support an atmosphere at the University that ensures that diverse members of the University of Virginia and Charlottesville communities are treated equally and fairly,” the docket reads. “The accomplishment of this mission is essential to creating an educational experience for students to prepare them for productive and responsible citizenship in the world beyond the University Community.”
With the creation of the permanent committee, Rector George Martin said the Board is making an effort to keep the topic of diversity on the top of its agenda.
“As a public institution, we want all to feel welcome at the University of Virginia,” Martin said in an email. “By establishing this standing committee we will reiterate the message that the University is a welcoming environment for students, faculty and staff of all different backgrounds.”
University President Teresa Sullivan said she is pleased to see the committee made permanent, and looks forward to seeing efforts to develop a more diverse student and faculty.
““I’ve been quietly urging this for a couple of years,” Sullivan said. “Diversity is one of the core values of the University.”
In the docket’s statement outlining the creation of the new committee, the term diversity is given a concrete definition: race and ethnicity, age, gender, disability status, sexual orientation, religious and national origin, socioeconomic status and other aspects of individual experience and identity.
“From my personal perspective, these changes are a reflection of the critical importance of continuing to support diversity in every aspect of the University’s life and of the BOV’s commitment to that priority,” Conner said in an email.
Fourth-year College student Blakeley Calhoun, an executive member of the Minority Rights Coalition, said she was pleased with the Board’s action.
“We’re thrilled that the BOV is taking such an intentional step in the direction of a more fair and equitable University for staff, faculty, and students,” she said in an email. “We stand in support with their efforts and look forward to the progress that will come.”
Today and in the past, student groups have played an active role in promoting discussion about diversity on Grounds.
“When I was a student [at the University] I was the co-founder and co-director of a student group called INTERCOM whose primary purpose was to promote diversity and dialogue about issues related to inclusion,” Martin said. “The University has made tremendous progress since my time as a student. However we still have work to do. Diversity is a priority for [University] President [Teresa] Sullivan and through this committee the Board will support her efforts.”
The committee’s diversity efforts will help to enrich the student experience at the University, Sullivan said.
“I think that diversity in the student body helps your education,” she said. “For all of you to go to a school with people who are just like you, you lose a lot of learning that you could have had.”
The committee released the agenda for its first meeting, which is to take place this Friday. The meeting is planned to focus on the results of the Faculty Salary Study Report, which found that female faculty members are paid less than their male coworkers.
“In this global economy, diversity is not a goal, it is a reality,” Martin said. “Our students will compete in a global economy and we will better equip them to do so if they have a more diverse experience at the University.”
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