Task force seeks ideas at Jan. 10 forum

Updated 9:30 AM January 10, 2007

Task force seeks ideas at Jan. 10 forum

By Laurel Thomas Gnagey and Deborah Meyers Greene

The Universitywide Diversity Blueprints Task Force encourages members of the campus community to bring forward their best thinking on fresh and innovative ideas to engender diversity at U-M.

The first of four sessions in a forum series will be held 4-5 p.m. Jan.10 at Sheldon Auditorium, Towsley Center, Medical School. Task Force Co-Chair Lester Monts, senior vice provost and senior counselor to the president, says in the true spirit of brainstorming no idea is too far-fetched.

"We want participants in these sessions to feel free to express any ideas for how we can sustain and enhance diversity efforts at U-M," Monts says. "General concepts to detailed plans, regardless of how ambitious or out of the ordinary, will be given every consideration by the task force."

In order to allow a number of perspectives to be heard at the Jan. 10 forum, speakers will be asked to sign up in advance at diversityforum@umich.edu or on site to give a five-minute presentation to the task force. Handout materials are welcome for those who feel their ideas need additional explanation or detail.

Other dates and times for the series include:

• 9-10 a.m. Jan. 22, Michigan Union Anderson Rooms B, C, and D

• 11 a.m.-noon Feb. 7, East Room, Pierpont Commons, North Campus

• 4-5 p.m. Feb. 23, location to be determined.

Diversity Blueprints was announced in November by President Mary Sue Coleman and Provost Teresa Sullivan, following the passage of Proposal 2.

"This is an historic moment, and an opportunity to apply our collective creative, energetic thinking to discover the most effective ways to support diversity. We will succeed only if we have thoughtful input from everyone in our community," Coleman and Sullivan wrote in a memo announcing Diversity Blueprints.

The task force, of which Sullivan also is a co-chair, held its first meeting Dec. 19 to establish a timetable for gathering campuswide input and making recommendations for how U-M can reaffirm its commitment to the educational value of diversity and assure equal treatment of groups and individuals based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin, while complying with the law.

The task force will make preliminary recommendations to Coleman in February, with implementation of the most promising ideas to be considered by March 15.

For more information on Diversity Blueprints go to www.vpcomm.umich.edu/diversityresources/dbprints.html. For help locating the Sheldon Auditorium in Towsley go to www.med.umich.edu/meded/towsley/rooms.html.

Task force seeks ideas at Jan. 10 forum

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