The University of Virginia already tracks the gender and race of its students, but some of the newest members of the school’s governing body want to know why it doesn’t also track their religious and political affiliations.
All of these details, they say, are needed to better inform how the school is increasing diversity on the grounds.
At a Board of Visitors meeting Friday, Douglas Wetmore, Centauri Health Solutions’ senior vice president of business development who was appointed to the board by Gov. Glenn Youngkin last year, asked why the diversity panel of the school does not include a student assessment. or teacher ideologies.
“How come we don’t have dashboards that track, say, faculty political ideology?” asked Wetmore. “Why wouldn’t we do that to try to convince ourselves that we have a balance and that we’re serving the full range of needs of our constituents as a leading public university?”
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Ellis
Bert Ellis, whose nomination to the board last year sparked a campaign to block his appointment, said he agrees with Wetmore’s suggestion and wants to see more “robust debate” at UVa than just can occur with a diversity of viewpoints and beliefs.
“You can’t have them if everyone has the same views as you,” Ellis, president and CEO of consulting and investment company Ellis Capital, said “It’s no fun debating with like-minded people, which I rarely do.”
UVa President Jim Ryan did not disagree that he sees diversity as including “the entire spectrum of human attributes, perspectives, identities, backgrounds and disciplines.”
While Ryan said he is open to suggestions about ways to track political affiliations among members of the UVa community, he told the board he has reservations about “legal prohibitions” on inquiring about political views of a future teacher or student.
The only student at the table Friday chimed in to say that her teacher’s political views are not a factor in her student experience.
“I understand the concern of wanting the exact numbers and data on where the teachers are,” said Lillian Rojas, the student representative on the Board of Visitors for the 2023-24 school year, “but from the students’ point of view and from my personal experience, the political views of the faculty have never mattered or affected my educational experience.”
University of Virginia President Jim Ryan speaks at the grand opening of the Forum Hotel at UVa on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.
CAL CARY, THE DAILY PROGRESS
Friday’s diversity conversation focused primarily on how the school is already pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives.
UVa has a total of 55 DEI positions across departments with a total annual budget of $5.8 million, including an annual operating budget of $464,700, which is 1 percent of the university’s total budget, according to Ryan.
Attending Friday were Kevin McDonald, UVa’s vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion and community partnerships; Tim Longo, UVa police chief; and Carla Williams, athletic director for the Virginia Cavaliers, who were asked to talk about DEI initiatives in their individual departments.
After an emotionally and psychologically tumultuous year, which included the Nov. 13 shooting that took the lives of three student-athletes, Williams told the board that UVa Athletics provides student-athletes, coaches and staff with access to resources such as affinity, grief and psychological groups. counseling, social services and more because he knows that “a healthy, thriving person contributes to a healthy department.”
For the UVa Police Department, DEI is taking shape in the number of women and black employees hired in the department. Last year, the department signed up to the national 30×30 Initiative, a consortium of police leaders and researchers committed to improving the representation and experiences of women in police agencies.
“Nearly 28 percent of our university police division is African American,” Longo reported. “Almost 30% of the police in the division are women. That’s three times our nation’s number, and we’re committed to continuing to increase that number … across the command structure.”
Williams and Longo told the board they identified areas for improvement or additional support by assessing the respective needs of their departments.
McDonald told the board that despite the “strong desire of its institutional constituents” to build a strategic DEI that applies to all of UVa, local community partners should be a critical part of that planning process .
“In the history of the UVa we had not had one [plan] in this DEI space that would be connected to the university’s strategic plan and ultimately use a metrics-based approach to allow a voluntary salary organization to advance this work,” McDonald said. “Perhaps most importantly, from my perspective, is that we also need to share that narrative with local community organizations.”
Prior to Friday’s meeting, Ryan published an essay titled “DEI: The Case for Common Ground” in the Chronicle of Higher Education, reiterating his commitment to DEI initiatives at UVa.
Ryan said in that essay that despite legislation to limit DEI programs to public universities in at least 20 states, “there is more room for common ground” between those on opposite sides of the issue.
“I believe in the importance of this work,” Ryan told the Board of Visitors on Friday. “I also think it’s important for universities to pay attention to honest criticism of how we approach DEI so that we can be open to ideas or changes that can make us better in this space and can make us better at meeting the needs of our institutions “.
Sydney Shuler (908) 217-1425
sshuler@dailyprogress.com
@sidneyshuler on Twitter
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