Cornell has announced the formation of a University Diversity Council (UDC) to deepen and reinvigorate the university's commitment to creating and sustaining an inclusive campus community. The council will be overseen by an executive committee co-chaired by President David Skorton and Provost Biddy Martin.

"Through this critical effort we intend to make the changes that are essential to the future success of our campus," said Skorton. "Cornell can, and must, be a positive model for how a university draws its strength from increasingly diverse pools of students, faculty and staff."

Said Provost Martin: "Cornell is committed to continuing its legacy of recruiting and retaining a heterogeneous faculty, student body and staff; fostering a climate that encourages active engagement and learning across differences, not passive tolerance of diversity."

The UDC will build on a series of reviews and initiatives that have been conducted in recent years. These include the disability task force, the Asian American task force, the National Science Foundation Advance grant and the Teagle report on racial disparities in higher education.

Implementation of the council's initiatives will be directed by a working group to be co-chaired by Vice Provosts Robert Harris and David Harris, and will include about a dozen other members who "have high-level responsibility for diversity programs, are national experts in diversity-related issues or are elected student or staff representatives," said David Harris.

All members of the Cornell community are invited to suggest goals and strategies for the new council by e-mail at diversityinput@cornell.edu or visit a monthly public meeting of the UDC working group. These meetings will be publicized well in advance in campus publications and elsewhere. Information on all aspects of campus diversity initiatives will be available at Cornell's diversity Web site http://www.cornell.edu/diversity. A complete redesign of the site will be online by Feb. 1, 2007. Most of the content of this new site is already available in a draft format at http://www.cornell.edu/diversity/DiversityPlan.pdf.

Mary Opperman, vice president for human resources, emphasized the inclusiveness of the new council's work. "A key to achieving this ultimate goal will be to create multiple, varied opportunities for community members to develop an understanding of one another's experiences and perspectives," she said.

Commenting on the openness of communication on the subject of diversity at Cornell, Susan Murphy, vice president for student and academic services, said, "Across the community, engagement on these issues will arise from this new structure, and Cornell's senior leadership is actively and regularly involved with it."

Michele Moody-Adams, Cornell vice provost for undergraduate education, said that "to ensure the quality of all of Cornell's programs, from academic departments to all the services we provide to students, we must periodically review and clarify university goals, and then conduct reviews to ensure that the programs are achieving their goals."

She said the reviews conducted so far have shown that "we're already doing very well in some areas; but that in others areas we will probably need to rethink our goals and revise the methods we use to promote them."

UDC executive committee members include Vice Presidents Murphy and Opperman; Vice Provosts Robert Harris, Moody-Adams and David Harris; and Deans Alison (Sunny) Power (Graduate School), Peter Lepage (Arts and Sciences) and Charles Walcott (Faculty). The executive committee will convene at least twice a semester to refine and advance diversity goals and strategies. The working group will meet at least once a month.

Again, for a full listing of council membership and for more information about the UDC, visit http://www.cornell.edu/diversity.