To continue to create an environment that supports diversity, it is necessary to understand all that
we do in the name of diversity. To this end, the Office of the Vice President and Associate Provost
for Diversity has undertaken the task of systematically documenting each campus diversity initiative.
As a result of this process, several lessons were learned and valuable resources can now be shared with
the campus community.
Of note, there are three important observations we would like to share with the campus community.
First, there appears to be a lack of collaboration between and among units. Several diversity
initiatives seek to accomplish similar ends, but rather than collaborate, many units are working as
functional silos. Second, while there are many diversity initiatives currently in place, too few
appear to take advantage of systematic assessment and evaluation to improve practice. As a result,
the efficacy and overall contribution to the campus for these initiatives is difficult to determine.
Third, initiatives could be categorized as falling into at least one of six different categories:
recruitment, which are activities that occur to increase the presence of diversity at Texas
A&M University for students, faculty, and staff;
retention, which are activities that occur to assist in
maintaining a diverse student, faculty, and staff population;
awareness, which are activities that
seek to create or raise the consciousness about diversity issues;
skill building, which are
activities that seek to provide participants practical skills;
climate enhancement, which are
largely administrative processes that are in place to enhance the environment of a particular unit to
foster inclusion or elevate diversity as a priority; and
outreach, which are activities that
attempt provide a service or an educational exercise that reaches beyond Texas A&M University to
the broader community.
A new resource has been created to assist the campus community. This database details all of the
diversity initiatives currently in place at Texas A&M University. We hope you will find this data
helpful in identifying coordination/collaboration opportunities, as well as resource to generate ideas
for planning, executing, and assessing your own ongoing diversity initiatives. We welcome your
feedback as we continue identify and add
initiatives to this database.