7/18/02

AU DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP COUNCIL ON TARGET WITH GOALS

AUBURN -- Auburn University's Diversity Leadership Council has taken its first steps toward meeting AU President William F. Walker's charge to submit to him by Oct. 1 a comprehensive plan to establish promoting diversity as a core value of Auburn.

The council has established working definitions needed to proceed with the plan's development and created subcommittees to work on the plan's various aspects.

"Some of this has been a slow process, but there is a great deal of commitment among the council members and we're beginning to show some real progress toward meeting our goal," said John Pritchett, AU's interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. "The council members seem determined to do whatever it takes to meet their charge."

The council defined diversity as "the coexistence of people, processes and functions, characterized by both differences and similarities."

The council's mission statement says: "The Diversity Leadership Council is a team of students, staff, faculty, administrators and alumni empowered by the President to assist in establishing diversity as a core value at Auburn University."

For a vision statement, the council wrote: "Auburn University is nationally recognized as a dynamic academic institution. Auburn's culture attracts and develops students, staff, faculty and administrators that represent multiple dimensions of diversity. It is a fair and equitable culture in which the talents of every member of the Auburn University community reinforces its values and contributes to achieving its mission."

"An agreement on what diversity is by definition and the mission and vision statements are essential to the process of developing the kind of comprehensive plan the Diversity Leadership Council is beginning to put together," said Kevin L. Clayton, president of K.L. Clayton & Associates and facilitator for the DLC. "Once you get agreement on those things, the work that the group has to do will go much more smoothly."

To pursue its objectives, the council split into committees on communications, business, community and assessment. Each committee met to begin developing its goals and objectives, focus, needed resources and measurements of success.

"The subcommittees worked for about an hour and a half and then each gave a report on their initial work to the council," Clayton said. "I think, during the committee meetings, the members began to get an idea of just how much work they have to do before the plan is submitted to Dr. Walker in October. Fortunately, they do not seem at all daunted."

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jul02:AU-diversity