Cornell University
PA-4: Diversity and Equity Coordination

A diverse community includes everyone and is the foundation for the meaningful exploration and exchange of ideas. Since its founding, Cornell University has encouraged a culture that provides for the full participation of all members of our campus community—this keeps us at the leading edge in education and in our fields and practices. Cornell University is a place where intercultural skills are developed and enacted among diverse campus constituencies, with community partners, and within room and workplace. President David Skorton reaffirmed the university's commitment to diversity in a message to faculty, staff and students. This commitment, he said, is "central to the university's founding vision," "remains a core value of Cornell and is a key goal of the university's 2010-15 strategic plan.” He and Provosts Kent Fuchs and Laurie Glimcher, dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, are now directing the development of explicit diversity goals -- through the University Diversity Council (UDC) -- across all university populations to which units and departments will be held accountable. The UDC has been restructured to represent a wider breadth of the campus community and to incorporate a new approach called "Toward New Destinations." It allows colleges and units to tailor their diversity initiatives, based on institutional goals, to their particular needs. The restructuring of the UDC includes a new emphasis on measuring results and accountability. A wide range of initiatives and goals have been developed that will help guide the colleges and units in their endeavors. These goals and initiatives represent the full reach of Cornell's commitment to diversity and inclusion. The university's deans and vice presidents are now required to choose five diversity initiatives annually that best suit their needs and strategic plans and to report on their progress at year's end. The approach includes diversity initiatives grouped by the core principles of: • composition, which refers to the demographic makeup of a unit, such as strategies for attracting and/or retaining more members from underrepresented groups; • engagement, which refers to the personal, social and professional commitment to institutional goals and activities, such as developing activities and events that "promote opportunities for engagement across difference"; • inclusion, which involves strategies to improve the campus's multicultural climate and interpersonal relationships; and • achievement, which reflects levels of attainment for underrepresented individuals or groups, through, for example, leadership training, honors, awards and other milestones.

Cornell University has numerous opportunities on and off campus for individuals from diverse backgrounds to connect with others with the same background or with totally different backgrounds to develop cultural competence. In terms of activities, faculty, staff, students, and community members engage in and host social events, networking groups, and organizations during the course of the academic year. The university and the local community also host events together, such as the Finger Lakes International Dragon Boat Festival, the Annual Sister-Friends Luncheon, and the annual Ithaca Juneteenth Celebration. In addition, Cornell has a number of offices to support diverse communities who sponsored events during the academic year. Offices include: Africana Studies and Research Center; The American Indian Program; Cornell United Religious Work; Cornell Women’s Resource Center; Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program; International Students and Scholars office; Latin American Studies Program; Office of Inclusion and Professional Development, Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource center; Asian and Asian American Center and Alumni Diversity Programs as well as Diversity Programs in Engineering; the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives; and the Einaudi Center for International Studies. Cornell Latin America Student Society (CLASS), the Latino Graduate Student Coalition (LGSC), and the Cornell Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) hosted a private screening of the movie: “Cesar Chavez” as part of a fundraising event. Cesar Chavez was a significant Latino civil rights leader who fought for farm worker’s rights to higher wages and person. The Cornell Latin America Student Society (CLASS), along with the Emerging Markets Institute and the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs hosted the event: “Demystifying Public Private Partnerships: A Cornell and World Economic Forum Perspective.” Faculty Institute for Diversity brings tenured and tenure-track faculty together to engage in complex discussions about aspects of diversity creates a network of teachers and scholars who can serve as a resource to one another on matters of diversity and education, and supports faculty in incorporating diversity elements into new or revised courses. Center for Teaching Excellence Diversity Institute (CTE) is offered twice a year, and CTE also provides year round workshop on diversity in classroom. Many events are hosted by over 600 student organizations in addition to living learning residential programs such as Ujamaa, Akwe:kon, the Latino Living Center, and the Multicultural Living Learning Unit. Cornell offers programs to develop cultural competence in both supervisors and employees. In terms of training programs, the Supervisory Training Program for Academic Staff has a module dedicated specifically to cultural appreciation and understanding. Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble (CITE) is a group of professional actors and facilitators who use theatre to explore diversity and Inclusion. Their programs create safety around highly charged workplace issues, facilitating honest dialogue, self awareness and organizational learning on four levels: personal, interpersonal, group and institutional/community. As a part of the university's commitment to inclusion, this year CITE created and ran several sessions of Your Story, My Story, an interactive session aimed to create a deeper understanding of what it means to work in an inclusive workplace, for large units on campus. Many Cornell employees and work groups have benefited from attending CITE programs (http://www.hr.cornell.edu/life/career/cite.html). Cornell has established Employee Skills for Success as well as Leadership Skills for Success. Diversity & Inclusion are included in both sets of skills for success. These skill sets are at the corner stone of Cornell's performance management process as well as integrated into the design of programs available to all Cornell employees. In particular, the employee program Turning Point and the Leading Cornell Program, includes these skills for success in their curriculum. (http://www.hr.cornell.edu/life/career/leadership_s4s.pdf)(http://www.hr.cornell.edu/life/career/turning_point.html) Respect in the Workplace is a simulated on-line training program focusing on real-life situations in the workplace on avoiding harassment and discrimination at Cornell and understanding Title IX. Many units and divisions are making it mandatory for their staff to take the course and departments are being tracked in their completion against the university and other departments. As of May, 2014, 6,705 individuals, including 72% of our staff, completed the course. A recently released revised version of this program, titled Building a Culture of Respect, additionally now includes important information on how faculty and staff should respond if they learn a member of our community has experienced any type of sexual violence or stalking. It also lets faculty and staff know how to file a complaint.