University President John T. Casteen, III announced the University will, before the end of the semester, implement several proposals from a list of recommendations issued by the Working Group for Racial and Nonracial Bias Reporting last week.
The Working Group, headed by African-American Affairs Dean M. Rick Turner, was charged last December with developing a procedure for reporting incidents of racial harassment. The report was completed in June.
Although the implementation of proposals from the report, titled "Bias Incident Reporting Protocols and Procedures," is tentative, Working Group member Dean Shamim Sisson said she hopes the outcome of the report will fulfill the group's mission.
"I definitely hope that we'll get what our charge was, which was a clear incident reporting system, and provide a way to address those incidents of clear disrespectful behavior," Sisson said.
A temporary team of University staff members will be assembled to implement the Working Group's recommendations, which include a University definition of racial bias and a central reporting system, Sisson said.
According to University Relations representative Kathleen Valenzi, the implementation team has not yet been created.
Once in place, the implementation team is expected to create a permanent monitoring committee made up of students, faculty and staff, which will communicate with the Office of the Dean of Students on the progress of cases, Sisson said.
The Working Group decided to recommend an ongoing committee that would review cases as they came forward to ensure that no incidents are overlooked and that the procedure for handling cases becomes more transparent. The monitoring committee will recommend measures to assist the individuals affected as well as the University community, Sisson said.
An online training program for the new reporting system will be developed and will be required for all University administrators responsible for the well-being of University students, including resident assistants and resident counselors. The program also will be available to other students, faculty, and staff who would like to volunteer for training, Casteen said in his statement.
According to Casteen's statement, the Working Group also issued other recommendations that will be spearheaded by William Harvey, the University's new chief officer for diversity and equity. These recommendations include developing a social norms marketing program to address bias incidents, developing literature and stickers to support victims of abuse and harassment, publicizing the University's values through various mediums not currently employed and sponsoring a conference on diversity.
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