Annual Report on Diversity

The faculty diversity initiative is now in its third year. At the start of the 2008–09 academic year, 31 percent of our faculty were female, compared to 28.6 percent at baseline. The 2006 Faculty Senate Committee on Elections report defines those members of the faculties of each school of the University of Rochester that are eligible to vote for and serve in the Faculty Senate. In reporting on faculty here, we use this definition as supplied by the Faculty Senate. A list of faculty titles, by the school, that are considered to be eligible for Faculty Senate elections, and therefore counted as faculty for the purposes of this report, is available upon request.

This represents an increase from 411 women faculty members in fall 2006 to 496 in fall 2008. The proportion of faculty who identified themselves as a member of an underrepresented minority group was 3.2 percent in fall 2008. The underrepresented minority is defined as Black, Native American, Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic. That percentage was 2.6 in fall 2006. This represents an increase from 37 underrepresented minority faculty members in fall 2006 to 52 in fall 2008. Between July 1, 2007, and July 1, 2008, the University hired 199 new faculty, of whom 46.7 percent were women and 5.5 percent were underrepresented minorities. During that same period, 114 faculty left the University, of whom 40.4 percent were women and 4.4 percent were underrepresented minorities.

Faculty Recruitment

Special Opportunities Fund

The goal of this Fund (www.rochester.edu/diversity/faculty/fund) is to assist deans and department chairs in the recruitment or retention of specific faculty candidates who will contribute to the diversity of the faculty and who might otherwise not be recruited successfully because of intense competition. There was $500,000 available in the fund for FY 2009 and there will be an additional $500,000 available in FY 2010. As of this writing, more than $300,000 of the Fund has been committed for FY 2010. The 2008–09 Special Opportunities Fund ultimately supported 13 hires and retentions and helped with seed funding for one new program. Nine of our FY 2009 commitments will continue into FY 2010. Three new commitments are confirmed for FY 2010, and several others are pending.

Search Process and Building the Applicant Pool

The Office for Faculty Development and Diversity (OFDD) found new approaches for helping the University’s academic units expand their faculty applicant pools, in addition to continuing some of the processes begun in the previous year (e.g., distributing information on recent doctoral graduates in the relevant academic disciplines by race and gender, providing lists of Web-based journals and e-mail listservs that have high minority readership and are appropriate venues for job ad placements, and providing a description of best practices in forming a faculty search committee that promotes diversity). For example, in FY 2009, OFDD launched a recruitment grant program to encourage faculty to attend academic conferences, symposia, and other professional association meetings that have large underrepresented faculty audiences (www.rochester.edu/diversity/faculty/facultydiversityfund.html). Faculty may request up to $1,500 to support travel and conference fees. Six faculty Universitywide received recruitment grant funding in FY 2009.

In October 2008, five University representatives from OFDD, the School of Medicine and Dentistry, the School of Nursing, and Arts, Sciences and Engineering, traveled as recruiters to the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, sponsored by the Compact on Faculty Diversity. Approximately 1,100 minority Ph.D. candidates and recent Ph.D. recipients attended this four-day conference. Recruiters may attend by invitation only, and Rochester was one of approximately 30 schools at the conference this year. Attendees were told that the schools invited to recruit at this conference are only those that are serious about diversity. As a result of our participation, we had an opportunity to speak with dozens of minority Ph.D. students who will be searching for faculty jobs within the next couple of years. We will use the contacts made at this conference to help us expand our faculty search pool.

Arts, Sciences and Engineering

In Arts, Sciences and Engineering (AS&E), searches are guided by policies introduced in 2007-08, designed to ensure that the AS&E attracts maximally diverse groups of applicants:

• Search committees must contain appropriately broad faculty representation; their composition must be explained to the deans.
• Beyond advertising in the normal disciplinary publications, the Dean’s office also makes funding available for advertising in publications likely to be read by minority candidates. (AS&E also ran a general display advertisement highlighting all searches in Diverse Issues in Higher Education.) In addition, AS&E created a dedicated Web site that listed all available faculty positions and advertised this Web site broadly.
• Because advertising is not sufficient, AS&E leadership strongly encourages search committees to seek out women and minority candidates directly through contact with chairs and colleagues at other universities.
• Department and search committee chairs meet with the academic deans for a review/briefing session when searches begin.
• Before candidates are invited for interviews, search committees must provide a comprehensive explanation of the short-list and how it was formed.

The AS&E strategic plan identifies the domain of the Frederick Douglass Institute (FDI) for growth. As part of the process of creating a plan for growth, FDI will undertake a self-study, drawing on advice from outside experts as necessary, and provide a report/analysis at the end of the process.

Beyond the opportunities available through FDI hiring, the Dean of the Faculty of AS&E has a standing invitation to departments to seek target of-opportunity candidates. Few potential candidates are being identified, and the deans will be discussing with chairs ways to increase the number.

School of Medicine and Dentistry

Specific recruitment efforts at the school and department level continue to be the best means for expanding our applicant pools. At the School of Medicine and Dentistry, approaches to broaden faculty searches and hiring have been incorporated into the Guidelines for Searches developed by the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Data collection regarding search committee processes is being more closely monitored. Also, recognizing the need to expand the pool of qualified future faculty, the School has begun much more detailed data collection about the demographics of our residents and fellows. These data will be monitored going forward allowing department chairs to take a long-range view of resources for recruiting minority faculty.

Warner School of Education

The Warner School of Education continues to support broadening the pool of candidates for open faculty positions by the following: introducing the BlackBoard Warner Diversity Site for job postings; distributing the Guide to Acceptable Interview Questions; and sending faculty job descriptions to Historically Black Colleges and Universities sites, Latina/o scholars’ sites, special interest groups at the American Educational Research Association, and listservs for Native American scholars. The School has formalized the search process by including these steps:

• Warner Diversity and Inclusion committee members are involved in the candidates’ application screening process and review as well as with the decisions about whom to invite to campus. ƒ
• The School ensures that all faculty and staff are aware of open positions so they can use their networks to broaden the pool. ƒ
• Position announcements are circulated broadly including faculty and staff contacts and diversity list sites. ƒ
• For staff job openings, the School works with the Office of Human Resources-Multicultural Affairs and Inclusion to broaden the pool.

Training

In October 2008, OFDD sponsored the University’s first campus-wide workshop on gender bias in the search process. Approximately 90 faculty members representing all six schools of the University attended one of the two two-hour sessions offered. Workshop participants overwhelmingly recommended that this workshop, and the relevant research, be shared with others in our academic community.

Job Postings

During FY 2009, OFDD assisted in academic searches by posting 17 positions in Inside Higher Ed, a publication with high minority readership in academia (about 20 percent of its 600,000 monthly readers are from underrepresented groups, according to a recent survey). We also took advantage of our membership with the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium of Upstate New York (HERC-UNY) to advertise those positions on its Web site. The HERC-UNY assists member institutions by providing a central electronic warehouse for all higher education job openings in the region and is an especially helpful resource to the spouses and partners of our faculty recruits who are often looking for positions in higher education as well. The HERC-UNY now has 26 institutional members.

Recruitment Packets

OFDD created a faculty recruitment packet to help the leaders of our academic units assemble appropriate materials to give to faculty job candidates, highlighting cultural resources in the Rochester community, the University’s “family friendly” policies, the UR Home Mortgage Program, the Faculty UR Year One Program, and more. So far in FY 2009, academic units have requested 300+ recruitment packets (approximately the same number of packets as requested in FY 2008).

Our ability to retain faculty depends upon two critical factors: creating effective faculty development programs and providing a warm and welcoming environment. The latter can be facilitated through conversations and celebrations, by providing opportunities to make connections, and through various forms of communication.

Faculty Development

Mentoring

The responsibility for faculty development remains essentially at the school and department level; however, feedback from the October workshop on gender bias (see section A3 above) and comments received on the OFDD listening tour (see section C3 below) have provided sufficient incentive to plan a University-wide program on mentoring. The program began May 1 with a workshop for junior and senior faculty representing all six schools of the University. Nearly 100 faculty members attended one of two two-hour workshops. The goals of the workshop were to start a University-wide discussion about the University’s own specific mentoring needs, to share the research on the importance of mentoring for junior faculty and the research on the particular needs of those faculty who are from traditionally underrepresented groups, and to hear about some of our own internal mentoring successes and about a successful model from another university that we may be able to adapt for our own use. Over the summer of 2009, OFDD will convene a working group that will design a UR mentoring program and develops a proposal for discussion in the fall. Our goal is to launch the new mentoring program on or about January 1, 2010.

School of Medicine and Dentistry

While the University is developing a program that will make mentoring available to all early-career faculty University-wide, it is important to recognize that in some units of the University, mentoring is already a core component of the faculty experience. The University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) provides one of the most recent examples of a commitment to mentoring. The CTSI, funded by the National Institutes of Health, serves as both an academic home for integrated clinical and translational science and a national model for innovative approaches to the education and training of new clinical and translational scientists. Education, training, and faculty development programs constitute a critical function within this new discipline of clinical and translational science. Vivian Lewis, MD, Associate Dean for Faculty Development – Women and Diversity, heads the mentor development core of five faculty members, which helps support and maintain the availability of quality research mentors. Activities have included mentoring workshops and oversight of the mentor/mentee pairs to help ensure that there is adequate progress toward completion of the individual’s research career development plan. A Web-based curriculum on mentoring is now in place and will eventually be an important faculty development resource for the entire Medical Center.

Arts, Sciences and Engineering

All departments in AS&E have been asked to develop (if they have not done so already) and codify procedures for mentoring junior faculty to address a range of questions identified by the deans. In addition, AS&E is establishing a faculty development committee charged with advising on best practices and monitoring behavior. The committee will have a special responsibility for advising on the development of faculty from groups who are underrepresented generally or underrepresented in their disciplines.

Faculty UR Year One Early Career Programs

The 2008–09 academic year was the second year for the UR Year One and Early Career Programs (http://www.rochester.edu/diversity/faculty/facultydevelopmentprograms/). The Senior Associate Provost plans and delivers this three-component program, which is designed to welcome new and early career faculty into the campus community. The first component helps new faculty identify institutional resources that will assist with writing grants, publishing, and tenure and promotion. In the second component, the faculty participate in informal discussions about issues of teaching and learning. The third component is primarily social and provides occasions to include the spouses, partners, and children of our new and early career faculty so that they too may enjoy a picnic on the quad, an Eastman concert, or a tour of the Memorial Art Gallery. The 2008-09 program was driven largely by the suggestions of the faculty who participated in the program during the previous year and has been enormously well-received.

Other Faculty Development Programs

School of Medicine and Dentistry

The School of Medicine and Dentistry continues to support a variety of faculty development programs, including its Dean’s Teaching Fellowship Program, which offers a curriculum for the development of six to eight qualified faculty members per year based on their commitment to careers in medical education (see http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/education/md/oeer/deans-teaching-fellowship.cfm); training and support for faculty tutors in problem-based learning; departmentally based faculty mentorship programs; the Annual Faculty Development Colloquium (scheduled for June 3, 2009), which includes plenary session speakers, interactive workshops, and posters presented by the faculty; 20 faculty development workshops (see http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/education/faculty-development/workshops.cfm); the Women’s Faculty Development Advisory Committee (see http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/education/faculty-development/womendiversity/who.cfm); and a chair reappointment process that includes an assessment of the chair’s efforts in faculty development.

In addition, the School of Medicine and Dentistry created or expanded many other faculty development programs this year, including a luncheon seminar series on topics such as “Diversity: Challenge, Threat or Opportunity?”, “Helping Lesbian, Gay, Transgender Patients Negotiate the Medical-Legal Issues of Healthcare,” “Disabilities and Healthcare Professionals,” and “Balancing Family and Work-Life” (see http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/education/faculty-development/womendiversity/career/seminars.cfm); a monthly calendar featuring a sampling of diversity-related cultural events in the Rochester community; a monthly leadership and management series for junior faculty; faculty achievement celebration; and a half-day leadership development conference for mid-career faculty.

Opportunities for participation in national faculty development and leadership programs for women have been promoted, allowing for in-depth exploration of specific aspects of faculty development and for networking with medical faculty from institutions across the country through the Association of American Medical Colleges. Five women faculty from our institution were selected to attend the American Association of Medical College Women’s Leadership Conferences.

There are new medical education programs to provide formal training, starting with the next academic year. A unique new program enables medical students who are interested in becoming academic medical educators to spend a year studying teaching and learning theory and methods of assessment. The first group of students began the program during the 2008-09 academic year. In addition, a new master’s degree in Health Professions Education has been initiated in conjunction with the Warner School and School of Nursing to train faculty interested in specialization in medical education and curriculum development. Course offerings started during the 2008 fall term.

Arts, Sciences and Engineering

AS&E has joined the Harvard-based Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, an organization that provides survey help and guidance on good practices for the early career development of tenure-track faculty.

Building a Welcoming Environment

Conversations and Celebrations

In September 2008, the University held the inaugural Frederick Douglass Dinner, at which we awarded the Frederick Douglass Medals for outstanding achievement in civic engagement to David Kearns ’52, retired CEO of Xerox Corporation and former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, and Walter Cooper, Ph.D. ’57, a retired research scientist at Eastman Kodak Company, New York State Regent emeritus, and a founder of the Rochester Chapter of the National Urban League and Action for a Better Community. More than 200 faculty, staff, students, and Rochester community members attended the inaugural Frederick Douglass Dinner. This proved to be a terrific community-building event with which to begin the academic year.

OFDD co-sponsored several other conversations, celebrations, and programs throughout the academic year, including an October 2008 program on disability studies (with speaker Simi Linton, author of Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity and My Body Politic: A Memoir); a February 2009 program celebrating our local Native American heritage (with speakers Mike Tarbell, a Mohawk, who spoke on American Indians and Baseball, and Dr. Mike Taylor, Seneca, Wolf Clan, who spoke about sports mascots in higher education); and the February 2009 School of Nursing Winter Celebration (which included music from Zimbabwe, Korea, and South India, the “Network Steppers” from Rochester City Schools, food from around the world, and a display of more than 200 treasures and pieces of artwork shared by members of the School of Nursing community).

The Office of the Provost provided an opportunity for the University’s newest academic leaders (deans, associate deans, and department chairs) to engage in a conversation about diversity in the schools and departments. The 90-minute conversation gave our academic leaders an occasion to ask the difficult questions associated with our efforts to increase diversity and to create a welcoming community. It is our intent to have many more conversations of this sort.

Warner School of Education

Many of the most important conversations happen within schools and departments without a lot of public fanfare. For example, the Warner School began the year with a half-day retreat for faculty and staff that focused on issues of diversity and inclusion, with specific attention to the climate and culture of the Warner School. One outcome of that retreat was that the School expanded its Diversity and Inclusion Committee to include three staff members and three students.

The Warner community also engaged in many other dialogues around issues of diversity and inclusion over the last year, including three faculty/staff/student information meetings at Warner’s Wednesday Lunch Hour; discussions at two staff meetings and three faculty meetings around issues of climate and culture at Warner, focusing on diversity and inclusion; the viewing of the inauguration for students, faculty, and staff; and the purchase of the book Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan G. Johnson for the Warner community to use as a shared reading to help them continue the exploration of White privilege and its impact at Warner.

Communicating about the Program

Our success in building a welcoming community depends, in part, upon our ability to make the University community aware of all that the University is doing to promote diversity. We continue to expand our diversity Web page, www.rochester.edu/diversity/, while reorganizing the site to be more helpful to faculty. Since January 2008, we have added 11 content pages to the site, including our new Frequently Asked Questions page. This page in particular allows us to address important issues associated with the University’s diversity program with our community in a transparent manner. We answer such questions as “How does the University of Rochester define ‘diversity’?” and “Who is responsible for implementing diversity-related policies?”

We have added a blog, Diverse Voices, to the diversity Web site as well. The blog is one way that we are able to engage in a publicly visible conversation about diversity. We recognize that it is not enough to tell the University community about the diversity program. We also must give the community an opportunity to tell us their thoughts about our programmatic choices and our progress. Since our blog went live in November 2008, our blog authors have posted 17 items. The blog is open to the public, and anyone may post comments and engage in the conversation.

We had 9,565 hits to the diversity Web site in January 2009, up from 3,608 hits in January 2007. There were approximately 89,000 Web hits in all of 2008, compared to 77,000 in 2007. In addition, the Eastman School of Music and the School of Medicine and Dentistry became the final two of our six schools to create their own diversity Web pages.

OFDD continues to distribute the new Faculty Development News to faculty University-wide three times per year. In the most recent issue, we added a new feature, the “Faculty Spotlight.” In this inaugural spotlight, we highlighted Katherine Ciesinski, professor of voice, and Paul Ampadu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. The newsletter is accessible to all who visit our Web site (http://www.rochester.edu/diversity/faculty/newsletter.html).

OFDD and the faculty diversity officers held three town hall meetings during the spring 2009 semester – one on River Campus, one on the Medical Center campus, and one on the Eastman School campus. These town hall meetings, which were advertised widely (including in @Rochester) and were open to the entire University community, served as another opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to ask questions about the diversity program and offer their own ideas to those who are responsible for designing and implementing programs.

New University-Wide Data Collection Process

In 2008, OFDD implemented a comprehensive new data reporting procedure that will allow us to more thoroughly assess faculty recruitment and retention efforts at the school and department levels. In August 2008, each University of Rochester school submitted its first assessment report. Reports included data on applicants, new hires, promotions, and departures, as well as information related to retention efforts and the use of the University’s family-friendly policies. Our report shows that between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008, the University hired 199 new faculty. Of those, 46.7 percent were women, and 5.5 percent were underrepresented minorities. During that same time period, 114 faculty left the University, 40.4 percent of whom were women, and 4.4 percent of whom were underrepresented minorities.

Careful analysis of this data over time will allow us to pinpoint our strengths and weaknesses in academic searches and faculty retention.

This comprehensive data collection program supplements an applicant data collection process begun in Arts, Sciences, and Engineering during the 2006-07 academic year and continued with Eastman, Simon, and Warner for the 2007-08 academic searches. This year, the School of Medicine and Dentistry and the School of Nursing both joined the University-wide effort to improve the faculty applicant data collection process, thereby giving us the opportunity to analyze trends in the faculty applicant pool in all six of our schools in the coming year.

Annual Review of Senior Leadership

The annual review for every senior leader who reports to either the president or the provost now includes a diversity component that is critical to the overall annual assessment process. The members of the University’s leadership team are expected to address recent accomplishments in diversity, as well as plans for the year ahead.

Listening Tour

Between October 2008 and May 2009, Vice Provost Lynne Davidson, Senior Associate Provost Carol Shuherk, and Professor Emeritus Frederick Jefferson conducted a University-wide listening tour with 95 faculty members representing all six schools. Most listening tour meetings were with individual faculty members, although some preferred small group meetings and such requests were always accommodated. Meetings were generally one hour, which gave the faculty ample time to offer their own analyses of the successes and failures of the faculty diversity initiative and to make suggestions that will guide the future of the program.

Climate Studies and Exit Interviews

The first-ever University-wide exit survey process will begin this summer with a Web-based survey instrument to be administered by OFDD. The 2006 Report of the Task Force on Faculty Diversity and Inclusiveness indicated that there were no University-wide data that could help us understand the reasons for faculty departures, and suggested that such data might help us determine if women or underrepresented minority faculty leave the University for different reasons than other faculty. Therefore, the report recommended that the schools conduct systematic exit interviews for all departing faculty. Since the time of the report, the members of our Faculty Diversity Panel of Advisors (see http://www.rochester.edu/diversity/diversityleadership.html) have consistently suggested that exit surveys would provide valuable information that could be critical to our retention efforts more generally.

We will survey all departing faculty, including those who have retired. We will begin the data collection process with at least two years of departures, surveying faculty whose last day at the University was on or after July 1, 2007, and finishing the initial data collection with those whose last day was June 30, 2009. (In the smaller schools of the University, we may survey faculty who left the University even earlier than 2007.) Beginning with the FY 2010 departures, we will conduct the survey approximately four to six months after the departure date, allowing the faculty enough distance from their UR experience to be able to reflect clearly on that experience, but not so much time that their memories have faded or that they have lost interest. We will use a Web-based survey tool designed to ensure greater anonymity and so that the respondents can provide the information at a time that is convenient for them. The information from this survey will be aggregated and presented back to the University community in future diversity annual reports.

Arts, Sciences and Engineering

A survey of undergraduates in the College was administered in the spring of 2008. More than 30 percent of students completed it. Results indicate that the overwhelming majority of students felt that their classes were free of racial tension, that they were welcome in classes, and that instructors were receptive to multiple viewpoints. The results also show, however, that many students misunderstand practices in admissions and financial aid, that some students feel isolated when group work is required in a class, especially when groups self-form, that many students worry about their peers’ self-segregation, and that many students see the lack of faculty diversity, in conjunction with the over-representation of minority workers in dining and building services, as a serious social justice issue. Several of these issues were addressed in a series of conversations organized by the College Diversity Roundtable on Martin Luther King Day. The results of the survey were discussed with many groups on campus during the 2008-09 year. The survey will be conducted again in 2010.

School of Nursing

In the School of Nursing, a diversity climate survey is disseminated yearly. In 2008, many comments indicated that more programs are needed on the topics of disability and on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues. For several closed-ended questions, however, respondents chose a “neutral” option. This made it difficult to interpret some results. In order to increase accuracy and clarity in interpretation, the School changed some of the response options slightly for this year’s survey, adding more options and changing the wording on some questions. This year the survey was completed in March and was done online by a third-party vendor. This year, the School of Nursing enjoyed the highest response rate in the three-year history of the survey.

Other Resources: Electronic Library

OFDD continues to make information available to the University community on a wide range of diversity-related topics. In order to do this more efficiently, the Office has begun to create an electronic library, with the assistance of River Campus Libraries. The Office has recently completed stage one of the process – creating a list of books and articles that will be included in the first iteration of the electronic library. The library will be available to the University community (accessible through the same process that is used to access all University library materials) early in the 2009-10 academic year.

Professional Administrative Supervisory (PAS) Grade 50+ Recruitment Initiative

The objective of the PAS Grade 50+ recruitment program is to build a pipeline to a diverse professional workforce. This initiative is the cornerstone for increasing the diversity of our professional staff. As of September 2008, 6.4 percent of the professional administrative, supervisory staff were identified as a member of an underrepresented group. This is up from 5.1 percent in September 2006.

Community-Youth Enrichment/Pipeline Programs

Healthcare & Technology Youth Apprenticeship Program

This program provides the University an opportunity to work on building the pipeline with area high schools, exposing students to careers in health care and health-related technologies. Five high school juniors started the program in September 2007, and six additional juniors started in September 2008. Two of the students from the 2007 cohort applied to the UR.

Pillars of Hope

The Pillars of Hope program provides opportunities for elementary school children to learn about potential careers and professions from University of Rochester employees who are members of our African American and Latino affinity groups. These employees make monthly visits to Rochester’s School # 29 to discuss careers and education. This month, the School #29 students will visit our Memorial Art Gallery.

Upward Bound Programs, Arts, Sciences, and Engineering

The Upward Bound Classic and Upward Bound Math/Science programs assist low-income, potential first-generation college students who are enrolled in the Rochester City School District in becoming the first members of their families to attend college. Serving a total of 100 students, the programs run year-round, preparing children to succeed in high school, apply and gain admission to college with a special focus on math/science programs, and receive strong financial aid packages. Currently, the programs serve students enrolled at Thomas Jefferson High School, Wilson Foundation and Commencement Academies, Edison Technical High School, East High School, and Franklin High School. During the academic year and six-week summer enrichment program, students work to increase their understanding of and access to higher education, with every student making the commitment to apply to, enroll in, and graduate from college. Upward Bound Classic and Upward Bound Math/Science are funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s TRIO Programs and are housed in The David T. Kearns Center. In the current academic year, our first cohort of seniors has achieved both a 100 percent high school graduation rate and a 100 percent college acceptance rate.

Activities Designed for Inclusiveness

Inclusion activities are those that provide opportunities for staff development, training, and other activities throughout the University.

Affinity Groups

Affinity groups support the University’s diversity efforts by providing networking opportunities, assisting in the recognition and celebration of diversity, and taking the lead in volunteer activities in the greater Rochester community. The African American Network, Latino Professional Alliance, and Pride Alliance continued to serve their constituencies during FY 2009. A new South Asian group is now forming and is expected to begin meeting in summer 2009.

Diversity Book Reading Group

This group provides an option for staff members who are interested in learning about diversity, diverse cultures, and diverse points of view in a format that provides an alternative to standard workshops and lectures. The one-year pilot program ended in January 2009 with 75 members. The group read nine books on a variety of diversity-related topics over the course of the year.

Career Growth and Development Program

In order to facilitate the advancement of underrepresented staff into more senior positions, it is critical that we provide support to our current staff in career counseling and development. In the summer of 2008, the Office of Human Resources-Multicultural Affairs and Inclusion coordinated career counseling and development training for 12 human resources representatives and Employee Assistance Program staff through Career Development Services of Rochester.

Consultation/Facilitation/Training

The Office of Human Resources-Multicultural Affairs and Inclusion (MCAI) provides organizational development support to departments that are working to incorporate diversity into their mission and provides diversity training and enrichment opportunities for staff and faculty. This year, MCAI conducted eight such training programs around the University.

At the University of Rochester, student diversity initiatives are school-based. Data shows student gender and race/ethnicity for the entire University. Data shows school-specific data for 2001, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In the fall of 2008, 51.1 percent of our overall student population were women, 7.5 percent were underrepresented minorities (African American, Hispanic, or Native American), 8.0 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander, and 14.2 percent of our students were not identified by race or ethnicity.

Arts, Sciences and Engineering

In recognition of a thin pipeline as a significant limitation to recruiting a diverse faculty, especially in the sciences and engineering, AS&E has introduced many efforts to build that pipeline. All 18 of the high school seniors in the Upward Bound program applied to a college; 100 percent have been admitted, including four by UR. Of 13 College seniors in the UR’s McNair program, 10 applied to enter graduate school next year, and nine have been accepted thus far. The Kearns Center and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences introduced a Xerox Fellows program, through which 10 undergraduates will undertake summer research projects, followed by a year-long independent study.

In the summer of 2008, the College’s Early Connection Opportunity Program (ECO), a summer bridge program for entering first-year students, was expanded from three to four weeks. While in ECO, students take writing, literature, math, and science courses and enjoy an introduction to the rigor of a University of Rochester education.

To encourage minority students at other universities to apply to our Ph.D. programs, AS&E will bring a group of students in McNair and similar national research-based programs at other universities for a special campus visit that we hope will result in their subsequently applying for admission to UR. The first group of students (seniors) will be invited in the fall; after that, groups will be invited in the spring of their junior year.

As a member of the Northeast Consortium for Faculty Diversity, during 2008-09, AS&E hosted two minority graduate students as dissertation scholars chosen through a competition, one in political science and one in history. Both made substantial progress in completing their dissertations, which they attribute to the mentoring they received from faculty and the opportunity for full-time scholarship. Both will take up tenure-track positions at other universities in the fall. During 2009-10 we will host another student, this time in philosophy.

Students in the McNair program and the Kearns Center have remarkable graduation rates—far exceeding that of our student body as a whole—and we want to extend the benefits of the approach taken by these programs. From fall 2009, and with the endorsement of David Kearns, the scope of the Kearns Center will be extended to cover the humanities and social sciences in addition to the natural sciences and engineering and will support and manage all AS&E pipeline programs.

Students in the College are engaged with issues of diversity on a wide variety of levels. For example, many students participate in the College Diversity Roundtable (CDR) and the many student organizations whose members form the Minority Student Advisory Board. The CDR sponsored a highly successful Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Address by activist and poet Nikki Giovanni and a leadership retreat for students involved in cultural organizations. The students of the Minority Student Advisory Board commemorated the 10th anniversary of the student sit-in with a forum on diversity that featured a panel discussion. I was joined on the panel by Dean of the College Richard Feldman, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jonathan Burdick, Vice President Paul Burgett, and Professor Emeritus Frederick Jefferson.

Eastman School of Music

The Eastman School of Music has committed $5,000 to student life diversity programming. This money is available to the Office of Student Life and Eastman student organizations. In addition, Eastman’s Office of Student Life has cosponsored various events between Eastman and the River Campus, such as an educational event with the Pride Network and a cultural event with the Filipino American Students Association, and has supported and advised the Eastman Diversity Initiative (EDI), an organization of undergraduate and graduate students dedicated to promoting a strong musical community that is rich with diversity. Next semester, the Office of Student Life and EDI hope to engage incoming students during orientation and create a comprehensive program for the academic year that brings faculty, staff, alumni, and students together in ways that enhance the inclusion of the Eastman community.

School of Medicine and Dentistry

For the last several years, the School of Medicine and Dentistry has been a leader among medical schools nationally in the successful recruitment and matriculation of students underrepresented in medicine (URiM). The School ranks in the top eight percent nationally in URiM matriculants of the 130 U.S. medical schools, including the four historically black medical schools. The success of our admissions program is attributed to several broad initiatives involving a genuine commitment on the part of our Admissions Committee, the support of the administration, the success of our outreach initiatives, recruitment fairs and pipeline programs, and the active participation of our current URiM students in the recruitment process. Briefly, these initiatives include:

• A policy for application review by the members of the Admissions Committee that specifically focuses on applicants who have demonstrated significant exposure to the medically underserved and/or possess a perspective that has been developed through experiences of personal, economic, or educational challenge.
• Active recruitment efforts at five national medical school recruitment fairs targeting disadvantaged and URiM high school and college undergraduates interested in careers in medicine.
• Continued commitment to our Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program, which brings disadvantaged and URiM undergraduates to our campus for summer research and academic enrichment programs focused on the elements of a successful application to medical school.
• Participation in the Associated Medical Schools of New York postbaccalaureate program, which provides support for an additional year of intensive premedical studies to disadvantaged and URiM applicants who, while not currently competitive for medical school, can enhance their academic credentials while holding a conditional acceptance to our medical school.
• The active participation of our own URiM students in the recruitment process, under the coordinated efforts of our Student National Medical Association, a group focused on the underserved patient population and underrepresented physicians in practice.
• An active mentoring program (Minority Association for Premedical Students) in which our own students pair up with AS&E minority students and provide support, tutoring and encouragement in an effort to keep these students in the “pipeline” for careers in science and medicine.

School of Nursing

SON has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for scholarships for New Careers in Nursing. Award preference is given to students from groups underrepresented in nursing or from disadvantaged backgrounds. Grant funding is also used to leverage faculty resources and provide mentoring and leadership development resources to ensure successful completion by scholarship recipients.

The Accelerated Program for Non-Nurses’ NxSTEP (Nurses Sharing, Tremendous and Extraordinary Possibilities) initiative promotes student success by addressing four critical areas encountered by second-career nursing students, including student support to a new academic discipline; transitioning, surviving, and thriving through accelerated education; professional socialization and cultural inclusiveness in nursing; and career development. Monthly NxSTEP sessions and individual meetings with students are held to explore the focus areas of the program. Students also are invited to attend the monthly Inclusiveness in Nursing forums (see section IV below), as well as meet with the NxSTEP facilitator individually or in small groups regarding concerns of diversity and inclusiveness. A Men in Nursing session is also offered during the fall semester to provide networking opportunities for prelicensure and licensed men in nursing.

Simon School of Business

Simon is a member of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management—a partnership among 14 top M.B.A. programs and corporate sponsors to increase underrepresented minorities within graduate business programs and corporations. In November 2008, Simon held its Diversity Weekend. This two-day program is especially for underrepresented U.S. minority candidates who have an interest in graduate business education. The program included a student/alumni panel, a faculty panel, dinner and keynote speaker, and a career management center presentation.

Eastman School of Music

This year, the Eastman School of Music’s Diversity Committee developed a new, long-term initiative that will address issues of faculty, student, and curricular diversity. The initiative forms an ongoing, comprehensive program that will not only promote and encourage social, cultural, and racial diversity at Eastman but will also help to position the School as a leader in developing diversity initiatives within American schools of music. Ultimately, these initiatives will result in greater faculty, student, and curricular diversity at the School. There are three components to this initiative:

• A Series on Diversity in Music (beginning in March 2009 and continuing through 2009-10) that will involve two or three different events programmed throughout the year for both a local and worldwide audience. Each event will include a performance/talk/master class linked to a broader discussion of diversity within Eastman and other American schools of music. The School will stream each event for a month afterwards and invite commentary. This series will serve to broaden and deepen discussions of diversity initiatives at Eastman and at other overlapping schools of music throughout the country.
• A National Conference on Music and Diversity (fall 2010) will invite administrators, scholars, and performers from other music schools to broaden the discussion of diversity within American music schools.
• An ongoing Departmental Diversity Initiative (beginning in 2010- 11) that will enable individual departments at the School to invite underrepresented minority performers, speakers, clinicians, etc., for a short visit to work with their students and faculty in any way they choose. Each department will be responsible for assessing its own needs, investigating whom to invite, and successfully implementing the visit. In this way, each department will become proactive in its own efforts to find and present performers, scholars, and others who will address diversity issues in some way.

School of Medicine and Dentistry

With the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Cultural Competence and Health Disparities Academic Award, Dr. Cheryl Kodjo has been charged with creating cultural competence curricula to be implemented across undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing medical education. The School’s Diversity Theme Committee has been responsible for implementing most of these curricular changes. The Committee’s approach has been to educate the next generation of leaders in order to shift the knowledge, skills, and attitudes around cultural competence and diversity in medicine.

School of Nursing

The Director of the nine master’s programs has begun an initiative to review the courses in each program to ensure there is content addressing diversity and inclusiveness. This effort is ongoing. Also, during this academic year, four different programs were offered to SON faculty, staff, and doctoral students (faculty and staff are required to attend at least one of the four): “Communication Enhancement Program”; “Relating to Persons with Disabilities”; a showing and discussion of “Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth”; a discussion of two articles in the diversity literature (“Anti-racist Pedagogy: Challenges Faced by Faculty of Color in Predominantly White Schools of Nursing” by Dena Hassouneh and “Body Rituals Among the Nacirema” by Horace Milner).

SON also held monthly “Inclusiveness in Nursing” sessions, which are dialogues among students, faculty, and practice partners exploring inclusiveness in nursing for all cultures. Culture is broadly defined as ethnic, disability, gender, geographical, language, patient, professional, racial, sexual orientation, etc. Anyone may attend and ask any question in a safe environment. These sessions are held monthly, with various topics as launching points for discussions.

Warner School

The School recently responded to an incident of the use of offensive speech by communicating with all Warner faculty, staff, and students that an incident had occurred and described the steps that the School is taking to address it. Those steps include an emergency faculty meeting with legal counsel and a University intercessor and a Wednesday lunch hour discussion. In addition, the Warner School Diversity and Inclusion committee is drafting language to recommend that faculty include a component in their course syllabi that speaks to anti-racist language and tolerance as core values. The School will also make a discussion of antiracist language and practice a component of Warner’s Orientation and part of the Student Handbook.

Our future as a University will increasingly be one of racial, gender, ethnic, and intellectual diversity. Institutions that succeed in the 21st century will be those that have mastered the ability to work with people throughout the globe based on their talents, regardless of their religion, nationality, race, their gender. Our task as a University is to welcome all to join our community based on their talents. This task is not a simple one, and there will be setbacks and challenges along the way. But I am convinced that progress in achieving greater diversity is vital to our success as a great research University. I also am enormously gratified to be associated with a university where a commitment to diversity is consistently reflected in the decisions of our Board and our senior leadership.

Let me conclude by particularly expressing my gratitude for these efforts to Lynne Davidson, vice provost for faculty development and diversity, who initiated what I believe will prove to be a program of greater effectiveness in diversity and inclusiveness than we have ever had before. Let me also thank Maggie Cassie, assistant provost for faculty development and diversity; Malora Zavaglia, administrative assistant in the Office for Faculty Development and Diversity; Stan Byrd, human resources director of multicultural affairs and inclusion; the deans and faculty diversity officers and committees in each school; Provost Ralph Kuncl; and Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Brad Berk.