Theme II: Becoming a Safe, Supportive and Welcoming Campus Community and Physical Environment

Reflective Essay on Theme II, Issue No. 1: Campus Climate for Diversity

To what extent do various ethnic groups, women, students with disabilities, gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, faculty, and staff feel welcome and comfortable at CSUSB?

We cannot yet say that all groups feel as comfortable as we hope they will one day feel at CSUSB, but we take some pride in saying that although we are not where we want to be, we are a long ways down the road toward accomplishing the goal of making this an environment where students, faculty, and staff feel welcome and comfortable. We are dedicated to that goal because only in such an atmosphere can all students learn and grow to their full potential.

The president of a university does not bring about change by himself. What the president does is set the tone and offer leadership and encouragement to help the rest of the university community reach commonly agreed upon goals. Our campus has agreed upon a set of goals delineated in the University Diversity Strategic Plan. Dr. Albert Karnig, CSUSB's third president, came to our institution with a strong commitment to diversity and to building a better relationship with the community we serve. His vision and drive have helped us to move toward becoming a university that the residents of the Inland Empire recognize as their own.

Change is difficult for almost all institutions, and CSUSB is no exception. We have gone from a relatively small institution with slow growth to a mid-size university that is growing rapidly. The region we serve is also noted as one of the fastest growing areas in the state of California and in the nation. In the past five years, the university received the designation of being a Hispanic Serving Institution. HSI status indicates that more than twenty-five percent of our student body is Hispanic. Our student population has grown from a headcount of 8,367 in AY 1987-88 to a Fall 2002 headcount of 16,341 students.

One of the profound changes that has taken place in our university has to do with our relationship with the external community and especially with the minority community. We have gone from being standoff-ish and aloof to being a full partner in the community in every sense of the word. President Karnig has opened his home to the community, and he has encouraged the campus to form partnerships, many of which will be discussed elsewhere in the WASC report.

One of the change agents on campus has been the University Diversity Committee (UDC). This committee, with membership drawn from every campus constituency has taken a lead role in promoting diversity. The Diversity Committee helped to draft the Diversity Strategic Plan. It provides money for events on campus that help to increase understanding of and for diversity. The UDC has developed a strong partnership with Human Resources to provide for diversity training for all employees. It developed funding for developing new courses and to allow faculty to do research in the area of diversity.

An outgrowth of one UDC-sponsored activity is the newly established University Diversity Institute. The purpose of this institute is to provide diversity training to public and private agencies and companies throughout the region and to be a leader in providing such training throughout the state. First clients for the Diversity Institute will likely be law enforcement agencies in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Other municipal agencies have also expressed an interest in having customized training programs developed for them.

Internally, there have also been many changes. We recognized the need for diversity training of all university employees, and we have made great strides in providing that training. We still need to find more effective ways of encouraging faculty involvement in such training, but we are confident that we will succeed in getting faculty buy-in for diversity training in the coming academic year (AY 2003-2004). We also recognized a need for greater diversity in our curriculum offerings, and the faculty has responded by adding to the curriculum in many disciplines. There still is room for improvements in the General Education offerings, and the General Education committee has been looking at specific areas that could incorporate the contributions of women and minorities.

The Diversity Strategic Plan has been an important document. Like all such plans however, progress towards the goals delineated needs to be assessed. There has, for example, been an on-going discussion with the President about the need for an Ombudsperson. This discussion has taken place because the Diversity Strategic Plan called for the UDC to look at the issue of an Ombudsperson. There is also a perceived need for such an office on campus to respond to problems that cannot be easily addressed through normal channels.

There has been some implementation of the Ombudsperson idea, but what currently exists has not been widely publicized or laid out for the entire university community in the same way that the Sexual Harassment policy and procedures have been publicized and structured. A re-examination of the Diversity Strategic Plan will allow the President to delete areas where he no longer wishes the Diversity Committee to focus its energy and to set goals for us based on the progress we have achieved.

The demographics of California as a whole are changing, and our region is no exception. Our student body is moving toward reflecting the population of the area, but we still have work to do. Currently, Hispanic student make up about 27.5 percent of the total student population, but Hispanics now make up 36% of the population in Riverside County and 39% of the population in San Bernardino County. The Inland Empire, which consists of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, makes up our service area. We have one of the lowest college going rates in the state, so we face significant challenges in trying to recruit a student body that accurately reflects the demographics of the region.

In conjunction with a growth in the numbers of students, the campus has recognized a need to improve the rate at which all students graduate. As we find ways to shorten the time it takes for students to graduate, we also want to make sure that all groups are graduating at roughly the same rate. We need to develop plans to increase the graduation rate of African-American students and Asian students as both those groups are graduating in significantly lower numbers than the campus average.

Because change takes place so slowly in human resources, the campus has a long way to go before its faculty (in particular) and staff mirror the ethnic composition of the surrounding community. We also face challenges in increasing the range of employment opportunities for women in areas where they have not traditionally been employed. We have similar challenges when we look at the numbers of minorities who are disproportionately represented in the service trades such as groundskeepers or custodians.

Specific groups will likely feel that progress has been slow or unsatisfactory. Having representatives from those groups on campus committees such as the University Diversity committee will ensure that their voices are heard and that action is taken as we strive to move toward a more inclusive university. There have been incidents of harassment involving gay and lesbian students. Members of some ethnic groups have been the target of hate-motivated behavior. The campus addressed these actions, and it recognizes that more still must be done.

There have been many successes in which we can take pride. Women and minorities have taken leadership roles across the campus. Our students have garnered awards in venues across the country, and we take special pride in dominating the awards at the Model United Nations program year after year. We are a university on the move, and with hard work, and cooperation, we will, increasingly, be the institution of choice for students in the Inland Empire.

(See the Full Report on research and the data on which this essay and analysis are based )

For another description of our recent activities and efforts to improve the Campus Climate for Diversity, see pages 19-25 of the report that was done as part of our Preparatory Report on follow up to recommendations of the 1998 WASC visit team.