2008 UW Diversity Forum
A New Day for Diversity
A New Day for Diversity
“When it comes to how people feel about being in an institution, so much of how we feel depends on the people we work with day in and day out and how
departments and programs and administrative units are run and how people within them interact,” Martin said. “And a lot of the so called subtle — but to people
who have to endure they are not so subtle — forms of rendering people invisible or are discriminating against them. A lot of those things are just the things that
happen day-to-day in the places where we live and spend most of our time. If departments and programs and the chairs of those programs, departments and
administrative units and other people with responsible positions within them don’t assume responsibility not only to ensure that we hire and we pay more diverse
faculty and staff, not only to ensure that we have a more diverse student body, but also for determining what happens day-to-day to people and how it can feel.”
Part of the problem, in Martin’s view, is that people oftentimes don’t appreciate what other who are different go through until they have walked in their shoes.
“People who tend to be a part of normative groups are not going to automatically understand what it feels like if you aren’t part of in any given situation the norm
to be rendered invisible by virtue of the assumptions held by those who hold normative positions and points of view,” Martin said. “It’s not malice on their parts. It’s
simply an inability or a learned ability to understand what it feels like in various situations to be rendered invisible. But these are the kinds of things that have to
be discussed and they have to be discussed respectfully and they have to become matters of consequence for every unit and every group on campus if we are
really going to make a difference.”
And so, while programs and numeric goals are important, human relations and how people interact loom large in Martin’s perspective. “An approach that
may put diversity and what it means intellectually at the center of the project of the university is so important because if you don’t excite people intellectually
and emotionally about the kinds of things that you need to do, they will just be indifferent,” Martin said. “It’s not even that people will be opposed. It’s just that
they aren’t going to be engaged in helping move things forward. Again I don’t think we have at hand right now all of the tactics and strategies we are going to
need. We have to create some of them ourselves here.”
For the moment, Martin is going to listen and observe before she takes action. “I think it is going to require a broad, integrated approach and a set of
definitions of what we mean by all those things that put engagement with diversity and opening oneself to the realities and the extraordinary opportunities of
human differences right at the core,” Martin emphasized. “I can’t tell you right now what programs that will mean. But will we do something that we think will
have the promise of working? Yes! Absolutely!”
Next issue: Damon Williams, Seema Kapani and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva on diversity
departments and programs and administrative units are run and how people within them interact,” Martin said. “And a lot of the so called subtle — but to people
who have to endure they are not so subtle — forms of rendering people invisible or are discriminating against them. A lot of those things are just the things that
happen day-to-day in the places where we live and spend most of our time. If departments and programs and the chairs of those programs, departments and
administrative units and other people with responsible positions within them don’t assume responsibility not only to ensure that we hire and we pay more diverse
faculty and staff, not only to ensure that we have a more diverse student body, but also for determining what happens day-to-day to people and how it can feel.”
Part of the problem, in Martin’s view, is that people oftentimes don’t appreciate what other who are different go through until they have walked in their shoes.
“People who tend to be a part of normative groups are not going to automatically understand what it feels like if you aren’t part of in any given situation the norm
to be rendered invisible by virtue of the assumptions held by those who hold normative positions and points of view,” Martin said. “It’s not malice on their parts. It’s
simply an inability or a learned ability to understand what it feels like in various situations to be rendered invisible. But these are the kinds of things that have to
be discussed and they have to be discussed respectfully and they have to become matters of consequence for every unit and every group on campus if we are
really going to make a difference.”
And so, while programs and numeric goals are important, human relations and how people interact loom large in Martin’s perspective. “An approach that
may put diversity and what it means intellectually at the center of the project of the university is so important because if you don’t excite people intellectually
and emotionally about the kinds of things that you need to do, they will just be indifferent,” Martin said. “It’s not even that people will be opposed. It’s just that
they aren’t going to be engaged in helping move things forward. Again I don’t think we have at hand right now all of the tactics and strategies we are going to
need. We have to create some of them ourselves here.”
For the moment, Martin is going to listen and observe before she takes action. “I think it is going to require a broad, integrated approach and a set of
definitions of what we mean by all those things that put engagement with diversity and opening oneself to the realities and the extraordinary opportunities of
human differences right at the core,” Martin emphasized. “I can’t tell you right now what programs that will mean. But will we do something that we think will
have the promise of working? Yes! Absolutely!”
Next issue: Damon Williams, Seema Kapani and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva on diversity
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 1 of 2
The possibility of change is wafting around the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus like that first
spring breeze that carries the aroma of newly sprouted flowers. There has been a change of leadership at
UW-Madison — Dr. Biddy Martin as chancellor and Dr. Damon Williams as vice provost for diversity &
climate — that also carries with it a new way of looking at what has seemed an intractable problem of
increasing the number of students of color enrolling and graduating from Wisconsin’s premier university.
While affirmative action programs have been treated as “add-on” numeric-based programs that became
an extra duty — almost a burden — for those operating the campus and educational environment, Martin
and Williams look at diversity efforts that are more closely connected to the very mission of the university
and intrinsic to it maintaining its academic excellence in an increasingly globalized academic
environment.
Martin, Williams and other rolled out their thinking on diversity efforts at the 2008 UW-Madison
Diversity Forum, “Beyond Plans and Promises: Active Leadership for the Future,” held at the Memorial
Union on September 23. In her speech before a packed Union Theater audience, Martin talked about the
roll that members of the university community must play in efforts to diversify the campus.
Part 1 of 2
The possibility of change is wafting around the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus like that first
spring breeze that carries the aroma of newly sprouted flowers. There has been a change of leadership at
UW-Madison — Dr. Biddy Martin as chancellor and Dr. Damon Williams as vice provost for diversity &
climate — that also carries with it a new way of looking at what has seemed an intractable problem of
increasing the number of students of color enrolling and graduating from Wisconsin’s premier university.
While affirmative action programs have been treated as “add-on” numeric-based programs that became
an extra duty — almost a burden — for those operating the campus and educational environment, Martin
and Williams look at diversity efforts that are more closely connected to the very mission of the university
and intrinsic to it maintaining its academic excellence in an increasingly globalized academic
environment.
Martin, Williams and other rolled out their thinking on diversity efforts at the 2008 UW-Madison
Diversity Forum, “Beyond Plans and Promises: Active Leadership for the Future,” held at the Memorial
Union on September 23. In her speech before a packed Union Theater audience, Martin talked about the
roll that members of the university community must play in efforts to diversify the campus.
| UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin |
