In January 2000, Cornell developed the diversity vision, Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds. This year, Cornell celebrates the 10th anniversary of that initiative and is taking the opportunity to renew its commitment to diversity by preparing for its future student body and workforce, which are expected to be more diverse than ever.

This academic year, the university accepted its most diverse class: 36 percent of incoming students self-identified as persons of color. This emerging demographic landscape is a major driver for the university's renewed commitment to diversity and the recent restructuring of the Office of Workforce Diversity, Equity and Life Quality into the Office of Workforce Diversity and Inclusion.

According to the Census Bureau, more than half the nation's children will be members of minority groups by 2023, and minority groups will make up 54 percent of the nation's population by 2050. By 2018, people 55 years and older will comprise approximately 25 percent of the workforce; individuals 16-24 years old will comprise almost 18 percent of the workforce; and those of ages 25-54 will make up 64 percent. Women will comprise 47 percent of the workforce by 2016. Similar trends can be seen in Tompkins County; for example, its white population was 80 percent in 2008, down from 89 percent in 1990, with the offset being an increase of 9 percent in populations of color.

"The Office of Workforce Diversity and Inclusion will focus on the impact of such demographic trends on Cornell's workforce," said Lynette Chappell-Williams, associate vice president for workforce diversity and inclusion. "It will promote an inclusive working environment by developing strategies and providing leadership for diversifying the faculty and staff populations, ensuring affirmative action compliance and implementing work/family initiatives for faculty and staff." The office also is responsible for the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program and partners with the Wellness Program.

Although the university recently curtailed hiring because of current financial challenges, Chappell-Williams said that "when the university regains financial equilibrium, it will need to aggressively recruit diverse faculty and staff. Thus, Cornell is developing a strategic plan that includes diversity initiatives and is ensuring that policies, procedures and formal and informal practices do not exclude individuals of any group."

She said that a truly inclusive environment has no so-called "micro-inequities" -- those "events that appear insignificant but that occur wherever a group perceives an individual to be different." Micro-inequities include seemingly harmless jokes about someone from a different background or group, greeting some colleagues more enthusiastically than those from a diverse group or disregarding someone's comments in a meeting.

"Diversity is critical to Cornell being a competitive employer of choice for the emerging diverse population," said Chappell-Williams. The university has received numerous awards that applaud its human resource programs that meet the needs of a diverse population, she said. "The goal now is to increase the awareness and utilization of these programs."

Over the past 10 years, the diversity office has focused on staff diversity training and retention strategies. The office will now develop comparable programs for faculty members and support efforts to retain and increase the current diverse staff and faculty. For example, the office has interviewed minority staff members to determine their intent to stay at Cornell; it plans to expand these efforts to faculty to better understand the university's perceived and actual strengths in inclusiveness.

"Research has shown that when an organization is inclusive, its members more freely express new and different ideas, which enhances innovation, and are more motivated to implement the goals they helped create," Chappell-Williams said.

To help promote that inclusive environment, Chappell-Williams will coordinate a series of Cornell Perspectives articles on diversity and inclusiveness concerns that will appear periodically in the Cornell Chronicle, beginning this spring.