Inclusiveness and Diversity

February 16, 1995

For many years the EPS Department has worked to create a diverse faculty, student body, and curriculum. To be sure, we are now recognized nationally for our unique achievements in this area. However, few persons seem to recognize how long and hard we worked to achieve our current situation. Further, few persons seem to realize what challenges lie ahead for us. In some areas we have been superb and other areas require the same kind of commitment and persistence that brought us results on the positive fronts. The Department stands out among peers even in a college that is considerably more diverse than the campus.

Our commitment to inclusiveness and diversity is based primarily on the beliefs that such a diverse environment will help us attract the best faculty and students, construct the most enriched intellectual context, develop the personal and professional skills and attitudes that our faculty and students will need in their lives and careers, and position us to teach, research, and serve in a nation that's increasingly diverse in its school settings and workplaces and increasingly global in outlook. For example, in a homogeneous environment, much can be taken for granted at all levels of discourse. Diversity inevitably requires us to question commonly held assumptions, values, and paradigms and to ensure that differences in perspectives, styles, and attitudes are not misunderstood. Our field is greatly enhanced by a diverse intellectual environment.

Our student population is more reflective of the diversity in the larger society. The number and percentage of African-American students are large. The proportion of Latino/Latina students is considerably above the campus level and is also the highest in the College. However, the number is relatively small and does not constitute the kind of critical mass that is needed to impact the broad intellectual environment We can and will do a better job of attracting more Latino/Latina students into our graduate programs. The number of applications from Latino/Latina students has increased significantly over the past three years and we will undoubtedly receive our largest cohort of Latino/Latina applicants for the 1995-96 academic year. Future success depends heavily on the extent to which our curriculum includes content of fundamental concern to Latino/Latina students and the extent to which we find faculty with whom they can identify. The same holds true for Asian-American students and faculty. It is an area in which we need to improve and one in which we can make a difference.

Our faculty and programs are attractive to a broad range of students. The Department is supportive of students and faculty from diverse backgrounds and this fact is known around the nation. The long standing research, teaching, and service interests of the EPS faculty focus squarely on questions of fundamental concern to students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The Department's programs in history, philosophy and the social sciences are disciplined yet flexible and may apply to substantive issues across a broad spectrum. More important, many of our faculty have become nationally recognized for their research on issues of equality, diversity, cultural pluralism, race, gender and social class. It is primarily through their reputations that we can sustain efforts to recruit and maintain a diverse faculty and student population.