College President James Freedman sent a letter to the Dartmouth community in early June detailing the College's response to recommendations made by the Committee on Diversity and Community at Dartmouth.
Freedman wrote that the College already has fulfilled many of the recommendations made by the CDCD, like creating a dissertation fellowship for Native American and Latino scholars.
One of the committee's major recommendations was to have the College give a senior-level administrator responsibility for coordinating efforts to manage diversity.
In the letter, Freedman announced that Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Mary Childers would handle these efforts and "act as a coordinator and a catalyst of initiatives in a myriad of areas."
"I am convinced that Mary is exceptionally well-qualified for this key position," he wrote.
Childers said yesterday that her new duties are still not clear. She said, "I think it's vague in the letter because we're still defining what we're going to do." Childers said she will have a better idea about her position in four months.
Childers said she is talking with senior-level administrators about what her new role will be. She said she would "evaluate the quality of diversity efforts in relation to the mission of the College."
Some of the things Childers said she expected to be doing include promoting communication among different areas about diversity efforts and keeping upper-level administrators informed about campus concerns.
"I will try to ensure that the conversation about diversity is on-going and inclusive so that we do not function like autonomous units responding to particular crises and instead can be responsive to on-going issues," she said.
Childers said ideally the College would have a senior-level official whose sole responsibility is issues of diversity, but she said because of a tight budget, the College had few options.
"It's more than we've had, but less than we need," she said.
Because of her new responsibilities, Childers said she can add an additional half-time employee to her office to handle some of her day-to-day tasks.
"I'm daunted by the obligation, but I'm also pleased to have affirmative action mean something more than data and grievances," she said. "The College has done a positive thing with considerable potential if people are willing to be cooperative and creative."
She said she thought her new responsibilities could make a difference but "not in the short run. This is a long term commitment."
Another major recommendation the CDCD made was the immediate formation of a committee to evaluate the Greek system's effect on diversity and community.
But Freedman wrote that the College will hold off on that evaluation until the possible effects of recommendations made by the Committee on the First-Year Experience are evaluated.
"Until its recommendations are considered and any change implemented on at least an experimental basis, it would be both premature and unrealistic for the College to undertake a broad-based and in-depth review of the CFS system," he wrote.
The First-Year Experience Committee, created and chaired by Dean of the College Lee Pelton, released its recommendations near the end of last term. It recommended a drastic overhaul of the residential system to improve continuity and the College's intellectual atmosphere.
Freshman Dean Peter Goldsmith, who was a member of the committee, said yesterday that the recommendations could have an effect on the Greek system by changing the College's social structure.
"I suppose the hope is, in part, that the implemented recommendations would have the effect of broadening social options so students would feel less confined by what some perceive to be the narrowness of the current system," he said.
In the letter, Freedman listed some of the other changes. He said each academic department was asked to write a one-page response to the CDCD report. Childers has discussed the hiring of minority faculty and course offerings with some departments, Freedman wrote.
The College has recently stepped up efforts to recruit and retain minority faculty, administrators and staff, Freedman wrote.
He also said, as the CDCD recommended, the Committee on Student Organizations is examining how student organizations get money.
The CDCD was chaired by Trustee Stanford Roman. The committee issued its report, entitled "Managing Diversity," in early January. Freedman wrote that more than 1,500 copies of the report have been distributed.
