To ensure Texas A&M University’s place among the premier universities in the world, diversity will
have to be an imperative in which the university excels. This sentiment has been articulated in
Vision 2020, and in other important university documents. This visible commitment to diversity is
a commitment to the success of all people who work and learn at Texas A&M University. To be
sure, there are legally protected groups such as race and ethnicity, gender, age, religion,
nationality, physical ability, and veteran status. But diversity for Texas A&M University must
capture more than just the legally protected groups: there must be attention to individuals from low
socio-economic backgrounds, to individuals and their sexual orientation and gender identification,
and to first generation college students, just to name a few additional groups. For the purposes of
this report, diversity encompasses all people, but special attention is paid to those who may face a
structural or institutional barrier to succeeding at Texas A&M University as a student, faculty, or
staff member.
To create an environment that supports diversity, there are several possible initiatives which can be
undertaken. The landscape of higher education provides plenty of evidence to support this claim with
several programs, events, demonstrations, offices, staff, budgets, and research dollars all in support
of diversity. Texas A&M University is no exception with many well-functioning diversity initiatives
in place. However, while the number of initiatives currently ongoing at Texas A&M is indeed important
and impressive, to date, there has not been a systematic examination of the breadth and depth of
initiatives. An examination of the existing diversity initiatives can serve a number of ends.
First, to improve with regard to creating an environment that supports diversity, it is essential
that we know exactly what we
currently do to support diversity. Further, it is important to know
if what we currently do is actually successful in creating the desired outcome, so that successful
practices and strategies can be replicated in other units.
Second, by understanding the breadth and effect of diversity initiatives, there is an opportunity
to collaborate and cooperate among units that are seeking similar outcomes. However, to date there
are not many examples of cooperation and collaboration, largely because most units are unaware of
the diversity initiatives that occur in other units or on other parts of campus. This phenomenon
is not new, and continues to plague higher education in many ways beyond just diversity work.
George Kuh (1996) referred to this problem as a
functional silo, which refers to how most
institutions in higher education operate in a way which creates vertical structures that prevent
sharing widely across units and colleges. Many such silos currently exist at Texas A&M University.
Working to minimize functional silos can have a profound effect on our campus by opening doors for
new avenues of collaboration and cooperation in support of diversity. Rather than each unit
reinventing their own wheel, we can all benefit from the unit that has already invented an effective
wheel.
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