Dear BI Career Consultants:

As a dean, how do I get my faculty and the academic vice provost/provost to buy into our diversity agenda?

Dr. James Anderson
Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies
North Carolina State University

To promote any campus initiative, successful deans understand what the faculty value, how academic business gets done and how to facilitate the provost's academic vision. Successful deans have credibility with senior administrators and a cross-section of the faculty and staff, and they understand how to promote complex and sensitive agendas like diversity. Deans who have difficulty conducting general university business likely will have only minimal success promoting diversity.
My experiences at N.C. State and with other two- and four-year institutions suggest that the presence of a conceptual model facilitates one's ability to advocate for diversity initiatives. For example, suppose I were asked to address the question, "How does the presence of diversity initiatives impact the overall quality of the undergraduate experience for majority and non-majority students?" Before I request resource support for diversity efforts, I need to educate the campus community on the relationship of diversity to teaching and learning, to student success-persistence, to curricular and co-curricular experiences and to career planning — all areas that impact the undergraduate experience. I need to identify for the faculty and the provost the best research, best models and best practices associated with diversity that enhance the undergraduate experience.
I know faculty value things like promotion and tenure, release time, research support, motivated and competent students and institutional reputation. Why would I promote diversity agendas that don't touch on what the faculty value? Yes, there are areas of diversity that faculty should learn to appreciate. But I often have to lead them there by first connecting diversity to what they value.
The provost or vice provost for academic affairs is charged with promoting the academic mission. This person responds to many clients: faculty, students, alumni and trustees. The provost tends to support, with resources and clout, those diversity agendas that help him or her promote the academic agenda and meet the clients' needs. The provost looks to me, as a dean and vice provost, to recommend diversity initiatives that work, that are cost effective and that empower students and faculty.
As a senior administrator, I cannot afford to lose credibility with faculty and provost by recommending diversity projects that induce conflict, that serve a narrow group's agenda, that don't reflect excellence, that waste resources, that don't reflect the best practices, etc. At the same time I must represent and protect the interests and concerns of diverse populations on campus.
Finally, I must devise strategies that allow existing administrative groups — such as committees or the faculty senate — to have input into the development of a diversity agenda, most often via a guided process that promotes dialogue about the pros and cons of diversity. The naysayers must have their day in court. But I must be ready to anticipate and counter their positions with substantial evidence and a collegial spirit that will foster an informed collaborative effort toward achieving diversity.