The Committee on the World Cultures Initiative, renamed the Committee for Institutional Diversity and Plurality over the weekend, held a sparsely attended final general invitation meeting yesterday before the co-chairs, English Professor Melissa Zeiger and Dean of the College James Larimore write a draft report this weekend.
The meeting was attended by less than 10 people and only a few students. It followed two other general invitation meetings in Collis that were more widely attended.
Discussion focused on goals and methods of achieving diversity at Dartmouth, such as increasing participation in diversity training and changing the Dartmouth culture structurally and symbolically.
Attendees discussed which structures and people had helped diversity so far at Dartmouth. They then debated the cost and benefits of naming specific individuals who they felt had helped diversity at Dartmouth in the report.
Participants questioned how symbols such as Dartmouth's seal, portraits on the walls of campus building -- which Zeiger said tend to be of "dour white males" -- and art or murals of Native Americans are reflected in people's attitudes.
The meeting followed a weekend retreat in which the group's three subcommittees -- one each to read past reports and proposals, do outreach actions such as yesterday's meeting and do data mining -- presented finding and made recommendations for the Committee's report.
Zeiger, who is also a professor in the women's studies department, was reluctant to say specifically what was recommended before the report is published later this month.
However, she and committee member Xenia Markowitt, outreach coordinator of the Women's Resource Center, said the committee discussed its mission statement, recruitment and retention, campus life and outreach, accountability and integrating diversity at every level of Dartmouth.
Zeiger said that the name was changed from World Culture Initiative because it was "wishy-washy" and "misleading." She said the name was maintained until the committee realized it did not carry as much name recognition as they had originally thought.
