The Board of Visitor's Special Committee on Diversity met Friday in a meeting that culminated with a hastily assembled address from University President John T. Casteen, III on the steps of the Rotunda.
The meeting, which was scheduled this past summer, featured discussion of recent incidents and the University response, including the development and implementation of a diversity communication plan and the role of newly hired Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity William B. Harvey.
In light of recent racial incidents that have brought the University national notoriety, frightened some students and created tension within the community, the Board members and administrators said they sought to come up with a thoughtful and measured response.
Much of the meeting, therefore, was devoted to Board members trying to assess the current situation.
"The community is engaged in a dialogue with a fevered pitch," Casteen told the Board. "We need to get the rhetoric under control and talk about what is actually happening to people."
Diversity Committee Chair Warren Thompson articulated the Board's role and response at the opening of the meeting.
"We are here to talk about creating a plan that tells the world that inclusion is as much a part of University life as honor and ethics," Thompson said.
Many of the measures the Board is taking, including hiring Harvey, have been in the works since the Special Committee on Diversity was formed in the spring of 2003 and Casteen's Presidential Commission on Diversity and Equity issued a series of recommendations last winter.
"We have hired an outstanding [chief diversity] officer, but it seems like we are hiring somebody to take care of this," Board member G. Slaughter "Sandy" Fitz-Hugh, Jr. said.
Some Board members expressed the need to not appear reactionary.
"We need to deal with this in a straightforward way, but if we react too quickly we are going to mess it up," Diversity Committee member John Wynne said. "It worries me a lot that decisions are made under fire when emotions are so high."
The Board asked Student Council President Jequeatta Upton about student sentiment when she spoke before the Student Affairs and Athletics Committee, which met immediately before the Diversity Committee. Members asked whether the incidents were the product of increased comfort in reporting and discussing racial incidents or an increase in the frequency of such incidents.
"This University is not utopia," Upton said. "There are a lot of people who have deep-seated hatred," indicated by the spontaneous nature of the acts. "People are not doing this as a stunt."
Members also speculated on the motives of the perpetrators.
"When you have a problem by a few, the majority, through discussion and disclosure, can prevent these things in the future," said Board member A. MacDonald "Mac" Caputo, who likened those responsible for the incidents to sick patients afflicted with a disease carried by a small portion of the University community.
Casteen said students are his best source of information.
"It's a lot easier to get advice on the current situation in talking to students," he said. "They tend to call things as they see it and not hyperbolize."
Casteen suggested the incidents and community response may reflect a national mood, citing a comparison between incidents at the University and schools across the country. He also said that the public discourse about incidents involving victims of Hurricane Katrina exacerbated the situation and that he has heard people mention it along with incidents at the University.
Casteen said while most universities are trying to bury problematic race relations, the University is committed to addressing the problem.
Alumni and parents have been informed of what is happening at the University and are being asked to participate in the dialogue. Casteen met with parents yesterday and has been discussing it with alumni as he travels to raise funds for the Capital Campaign, Casteen told the Board.
Among the initiatives discussed by the Board were mandatory diversity workshops for incoming students, the new ad hoc subcommittee of the University Judiciary Committee and a system of safe zones so that targeted students have someone to go to at all times.
The Board also heard a status report from University spokesperson Carol Wood about the implementation of an incident reporting system, developed this summer, and ongoing internal communications about diversity issues this year.
"What we're experiencing today is nothing new, but the difference is we can provide the support and culture for students," said Thompson. "What we're creating is a learning environment that will better prepare our students for the real world rather than burying our heads in the sand."
Harvey is expected to further these efforts and encourage the administration to drive cultural change, Wood said. While he will initially devote much of his efforts the administrative component, Casteen said at the meeting that Harvey is expected to have a prominent role in the African-American Studies program, the Curry School and research projects.
While Harvey does not start till November, he has already been working with administrators, Wood said. On Thursday night he suggested Casteen address the public after the Board meeting on Friday, and plans and publicity for the speech were made Friday morning. He also suggested ribbons be given out during the address. University relations staff bought ribbons from a local arts and crafts store that afternoon.
To that end, at the committee meeting one hour before the address, Thompson went even further then Harvey had suggested. Thompson asked the Board to publicly endorse the distribution of black ribbons to signify that the University is a united community. He also recommended urging the community to wear the ribbons for a week, leading up to the Homecoming football game Saturday, where he hopes the entire nation tuning into the game will see the symbolic ribbons on the entire student body and fan base. The Board also discussed playing Casteen's three-minute video encouraging diversity at the game.
At the conclusion of the Board meeting, members enthusiastically adopted Harvey and Thompson's suggestion, donning the ribbons and standing behind Casteen and Thompson as they addressed the University community at large from the steps of the Rotunda.
"These acts threaten the core freedom that makes University life what it is," Casteen said in a speech that invoked the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. "Use those ribbons as a way of expressing one-ness with those that have been abused."
He also reiterated the need for a calm and rational response to the current situation in a public forum, the ribbons being a part of that effort.
The most valuable weapon is "speaking calmly, directly, and coolly," Casteen said. "The point is to say in a quiet, dignified way that we are together. Let's do it because our brothers and sisters are threatened, and this is the gesture that says we stand with them"
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