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[postdoc_at_r1]

Hi folks-
I am charged with longterm "retreats" around diversity topics for my group in higher ed (a mix of faculty, academic staff, grad students, and postdocs in the sciences).  I would like to organize the retreats around the "must know" topics in diversity.  In other words, around diversity topics that after one year of regular meetings you would expect participants to know/understand.

While I have background in diversity topics, my expertise is mostly in the area of race.  Thus, I am turning to Forum members to see if you all could help me create this "Top 5 List" of things people need to know about diversity in higher education.  To get the ball rolling, I have two potential ideas for this list (which are not novel concepts to those versed in diversity literature):

1.  Race, class, gender, and sexual orientation interact in complex ways in people's daily lives.
2.  Racism, discrimination, and other 'isms' operate at both the individual and organizational levels, and are embedded in our policies and procedures.

Got others for the list?  Know of any literature that would help me out (I have looked at diversity training literature, but have not found much applicable to higher ed that has any substance)?  Any suggestions or comments would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[sciencephd]

Start by getting a truly diverse group of people to organize and speak at the retreats.

[oldadjunct]

There is this thing called a "library" it has a thing called a "card catalog". Sometimes that "catalog" is on a "computer".  An on that "computer" you type "d-i-v-e-r-s-i-t-a-y"

[daniel_von_flanagan]

Got others for the list? 

Since these are mainly science faculty, you might try some of the following (which have been discussed occasionally on this forum):

* Should Eurocentric courses (like "stellar atmospheres") be replaced in science curricula by science from other cultures (like "Navajo stargazing").

* Since women do better in college math and science classes than men, what should be done to make the science curriculum more accessible to men?

* If almost every member of a science department is white (which in this context includes Asian and Jewish), is this  prima facie evidence that the department is racist and in need of diversity training? - DvF

[postdoc_at_r1]

There is this thing called a "library" it has a thing called a "card catalog". Sometimes that "catalog" is on a "computer".  An on that "computer" you type "d-i-v-e-r-s-i-t-a-y"

oldadjunct-
What is it about on line communication that makes people (like yourself) think they can behave so uncouth?  To respond to your comment:

1. Diversity is spelled d-i-v-e-r-s-i-t-y.... there is no 'a' in it.  If you are going to behave like a smarta**, shouldn't you at least be smart?
2.  If you knew anything about diversity literature, you would know that simply walking up to a computer and typing in diversity will get you an overwhelming amount of literature.  People spend their lives researching different specialties within diversity.  So what you are proposing is really ridiculous.
3.  If you don't have anything worthwhile to say, then please don't say anything at all in this threadline.  Just because you have posted on this forum many times does not mean that you are entitled to be a snob.  In addition, the fact that our statuses are different also does not give you the right to behave towards me in the manner you did.

[postdoc_at_r1]

Got others for the list? 

Since these are mainly science faculty, you might try some of the following (which have been discussed occasionally on this forum):

* Should Eurocentric courses (like "stellar atmospheres") be replaced in science curricula by science from other cultures (like "Navajo stargazing").

* Since women do better in college math and science classes than men, what should be done to make the science curriculum more accessible to men?

* If almost every member of a science department is white (which in this context includes Asian and Jewish), is this  prima facie evidence that the department is racist and in need of diversity training? - DvF

Thanks daniel_von_flanagan.  So if these were topics that were discussed at a retreat, then what about diversity would be the take-home message for the participants? 

The reason I ask is that I am not looking for a debate about the benefits/cons of diversity.  What I am aiming for is to have participants leave the room with a few one sentence messages about diversity.  For instance, I would hope that participants, after completing the retreats, would understand that all people carry biases which affect how we interact with others and that we need to be aware of our own biases.

[kedves]

If I had to plan and lead this training, if I couldn't get out of it, and if I had no guidance about form or content, I would start with the research.  I wouldn't assume that academic workplaces are entirely different from other sorts of workplaces with respect to the effectiveness of various training approaches.  I searched for "diversity training" in a major search index, restricted results to academic journals, and got 93 results.  All of these aren't relevant, but many look good.  From the small amount of reading I did, it seems as if the way that the training is conducted is important. 

Good luck with your project.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

Thanks daniel_von_flanagan.  So if these were topics that were discussed at a retreat, then what about diversity would be the take-home message for the participants? 

I don't know.  You can't predict the "take-home message" of genuine dialogue between intelligent people.  If the goal is not to have a dialogue, but rather to re-educate, then I don't see the point of doing his as a retreat.

This seems to have been organized by you or someone else with a bad attitude.  You are not sure what it is that these university citizens are getting wrong - else why else ask here for suggestions - but are also assuming that they are getting something wrong, or else why the retreat in the first place, and why the avoidance of debate?

I will tell you this.  Science faculty are not dopes, and every one of them will have engaged in discussions on diversity at length during their careers; it is an extremely common topic of conversation in coffee rooms, hiring committee meetings, and professional meetings.  If you go into the room thinking you have some revelations that haven't occurred to them, you are mistaken.  If your plan is to finesse them into some kind of packaged "lesson" in the manner of Socrates and the slave boy (in the Meno), you are heading for a train wreck. - DvF

[neutralname]

It's hard to imagine any group of faculty, staff and grad students who, on being required to attend a retreat on diversity, would embrace the event with anything but surly disinterest.  I would say your best bet would be to ask the group how they want to spend their time and what they would like to get out of it. 

[postdoc_at_r1]

DvF-
I get that science faculty are not dopes.  My PhD is in engineering and my doctoral work examined how white male engineering faculty form their racial identities and how those identities inform their views on diversity and how they contribute to diversity within the STEM disciplines.  From my doctoral work and given that I am working in a historically white research university, I know that the conversations that do happen around diversity tend to be shallow, end in debate that doesn't further anyone's thought process, or produce no real tangible products to use in classroom/research situations.  All of these outcomes signal some sort of failure in the diversity training.  Further, I know that in historically white research universities, diversity is thought of as racial diversity and the very act of "doing diversity work" rests on the shoulders of faculty of color (whiteness is normalized).  I do know from my doctoral work that many white faculty have NOT through much or at all about themselves as a racial being and how they contribute to the racial climate as a white person, and VERY FEW white people have positive white racial identities. Thus, diversity training ventures into areas of discussion where the base of people's thoughts about race is built upon many types of baggage: some which they are aware of, some which they are not.  So, in the discussions of race, as my group is entirely white, I disagree with you that at least one of the retreats we conduct will produce issues that individuals haven't thought about.

While my original post doesn't talk about the research I have done, I will say  now that I am well-versed in diversity literature on race and whiteness.  I have done the lit reviews on diversity training as well and ventured into other areas of research, such as multicultural counseling, multicultural compency, etc.  I am going into this planning stage with a good attitude (don't know how a bad attitude was conveyed, but I certainly didn't mean to portrait that).

As you are familiar with academics, particularly those in the sciences, you will know that they, as a group, are very product driven.  To sit and debate for several hours a month is simply a waste of valuable work time.  So, the challenge I am faced with is only getting a few precious hours of retreat time per month over one year in which to arm them with sufficient knowledge of the breadth of research in diversity (a huge task in itself), help them learn and practice a diversity skill set in which to use in classroom/research situations, and help them begin to see diversity as a needed and important part of science which requires a lifelong learning frame of mind.

All in all, it is a big job.  To distill all of this into a few retreat topics is difficult, even for those who are informed about diversity issues and the literature.  That is why I turned to this forum, to ask for a brainstorming session on what sort of diversity mindsets are critical to function as a member of the academy.

[postdoc_at_r1]

It's hard to imagine any group of faculty, staff and grad students who, on being required to attend a retreat on diversity, would embrace the event with anything but surly disinterest.  I would say your best bet would be to ask the group how they want to spend their time and what they would like to get out of it. 

I totally agree.  And I did that.  They responded that they had no idea what they want to see in these training sessions, that I should just create the topics and lead the retreats.  Also, they are not required to do this training- the entire group sees a need for the training and hired me to help fill this need.  In other words, they are buying what I am selling, but aren't sure what I am selling.  Very problematic, I understand....

[sciencephd]

It all sounds very heavily oriented towards race and racism.  One of my peeves about Diversity is how narrowly it is often defined.  I have seen this tangibly in quite a few Diversity Offices.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

My PhD is in engineering and my doctoral work examined how white male engineering faculty form their racial identities and how those identities inform their views on diversity and how they contribute to diversity within the STEM disciplines.

Sorry, but can you elaborate?  What branch of Engineering is this?  This does not have the ring of truth.

 From my doctoral work and given that I am working in a historically white research university, I know that the conversations that do happen around diversity tend to be shallow, end in debate that doesn't further anyone's thought process, or produce no real tangible products to use in classroom/research situations.  All of these outcomes signal some sort of failure in the diversity training.

No, all you are observing is that the conversations do not have the flavor or the outcome of conversations that you want to have. 

In my field - and I think this is true for all the hard sciences - my professional society sponsors regular panels where we look at things like the effects of pedagogical reforms on minority success rates.  My division of NSF favors proposals that have an explicit component on recruiting underrepresented minority students into the discipline; I am co-PI on one of these right now.  These are the kinds of things we discuss regularly. This is the bottom line, and far more valuable than sitting around moaning about inner faults.

However, I'm willing to hear your case.  Can you explain what you mean by "diversity as a needed and important part of science which requires a lifelong learning frame of mind"?  Can you give an example from one of the engineering classes you've taken?  For example, a course in statics, or signal processing, or polymer science, or something similar from whatever area of Engineering your PhD is in? - DvF

[neutralname]

There are arguments that in order to avoid systematic bias, science must be practiced by a diverse set of people. 

You could try this for reading: The Social Dimensions of Scientific Knowledge by Helen Longino. 

[daniel_von_flanagan]

There are arguments that in order to avoid systematic bias, science must be practiced by a diverse set of people. 

These are issues of science policy, not of actual science. For example, we can ask whether (and why) Tay-Saks gets more funding than Sickle Cell Anemia, but this is not science.  Plus, we talk about this kind of issue all the time.  - DvF