WASHINGTON
Does my hiring record demonstrate my commitment to diversity? Do I receive reports on students, faculty and staff of color who choose to leave our institution? Do I initiate discussions with the governing board about institutional strengths and progress in advancing diversity?
These are just a few of the questions that the joint task force on diversity of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) is asking university presidents and chancellors to reflect upon as they assess their commitments to diversify their campuses.

The set of questions is a part of an assessment tool found in the report, “Now Is the Time: Meeting the Challenge for a Diverse Academy” released last month during NASULGC’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

“It’s a call to action that also is a call to reflection,” says Dr. Robert E. Hemenway, chancellor of the University of Kansas, who says diversity efforts on campus require dialogue.

The report, which grew out of discussions held by NASULGC and AASCU members following the 2003 Supreme Court’s split decision on the use of diversity programs in college admissions, is designed to be a template for colleges and universities seeking to renew their commitment to the diversity mission of higher education.

“After the court decision, a number of us asked, ‘What do these decisions mean? How do we conduct our outreach programs?’” says task force member Alysa Christmas Rollock, vice president for human relations at Purdue University.

“We decided that we have been reactive,” she says. “We wanted to talk about best practices and how we can move forward. We wanted to confirm that diversity is important.”

Says Dr. C. Peter Magrath, NASULGC’s outgoing president and former president of three NASULGC institutions, “This is a document that can be tailored. It has an action plan in it. … There is some real stuff in here that is more than rhetoric.”