A Message from the President: Welcoming climate needed at UW
As we begin a new academic year, I want to speak to an issue that is of great importance to the University community and to each one of us. Our campus is not yet as welcoming to diversity as we want it to be. We must have a climate that allows each member of our community to achieve his or her highest goals. Great ideas and great discovery come from this. Our success - individually and collectively - depends upon it. Before enumerating some initial actions to improve our campus climate, it is important to underscore the value of diversity to our community.
At its core, the modern university is an affirmation of diversity - of the essential value of bringing different perspectives to the fundamental act of acquiring knowledge. Multiple perspectives and open discourse are central to the process of generating new knowledge. By definition, a university is the bringing together of multiple parts to make a greater whole.
Members of a university community learn from one another, in formal learning settings and informal interactions. Through their different perspectives, students, faculty and staff challenge each other’s assumptions, broaden their range of experience and learn to see the world from different viewpoints. In order to prepare students to contribute to an increasingly diverse society, the University must reflect that very diversity in its student body and among its faculty and staff. Different points of view from different cultures and lifestyles, different socio-economic conditions, different geographic regions, and different racial and ethnic heritages contribute to the vitality of the University’s learning environment. That is why the UW has placed such a high value on increasing the diversity of its students, faculty and staff.
But reflecting the diversity of the larger society is only half the challenge. The University must also be a community in which all members respect and value diversity. Each of us must come to understand that the rich tapestry of cultures, mores, beliefs and experiences represented in our community is to be honored, celebrated and nurtured. Diversity in its broadest sense lies at the center of the learning experience. It makes learning more meaningful and profound. We must come to value our differences and to find in them our identity as an institution of higher learning.
During the next academic year, and in the years to come, we must work to cultivate an environment of appreciation and respect for diversity. Over the summer, the University administration consulted with faculty, staff, students, and alumni from the Faculty Senate, Associated Students of the University of Washington, Graduate and Professional Student Senate, Multicultural Organization of Students Actively Involved in Change, Multicultural Alumni Partnership, Minority Think Tank, and others, to develop some action steps we will take in the year ahead. They include:
These and other initiatives will be summarized in a document to be presented at a public ceremony hosted by the Multicultural Alumni Partnership (MAP) on Oct. 21. The document will be signed at this event by University administrators, faculty, students, and alumni, thus recognizing the cooperation that is required to improve campus climate at our University.
These are some of the important steps the University will take during the next year. Others will follow. The University is committed to increasing the diversity of this community and fostering an environment that values and celebrates our differences. But ultimately each of us is responsible for the climate on campus. We will determine what type of environment we have through our attitudes and the way we treat one another. I ask each of you to join me in creating an atmosphere of mutual appreciation and respect where everyone can thrive and reach their highest potential.