• Diversity Forum Schedule of Events
• Fr. Schlegel's column on diversity from the fall 2004 issue of Creighton University Magazine - "Striving for a More Diverse Community"

PROJECT 125
Institutional Priority: Create a Diverse Human Community of Students, Faculty and Staff

Good morning. Thank you for joining me in this first University-wide Diversity Forum. I hope your presence indicates a willingness to join me in leading our attempts to craft a more diverse and inclusive Creighton community.

As you have heard me say before, I believe diversity is a leadership issue and it must be led from the top. This issue is particularly important for us in light of our mission and identity and our strategic priority to create a diverse human community of students, faculty and staff.

To create and maintain an environment welcoming to diversity, Creighton needs a variety of tools and strategies. Reasonable people may disagree about what tactic fits what circumstance, but the key thing is you — we — must, as a community, believe in its value. Each of us must have the desire to open Creighton to all qualified people; for without this openness, we will surely not succeed.

When I asked you to save the date for this forum, I noted that if we as a university wanted to be serious about diversity, it would require both on-going commitment and on-going honesty. We need to walk the talk. Today’s activities are designed to help facilitate this process. Specifically, we will use this time to generate courses of action/tactics in support of the five identified objectives within this institutional priority as ensconced in Project 125.

OBJECTIVE ONE
Faculty, staff and students will exhibit cultural competence/proficiency and awareness of the significance of global diversity.

Freshman and follow-up survey data indicate that the majority of the incoming freshmen have very little experience with other ethnic groups, and they do not go out of their way during their freshmen year to meet others different from themselves. The data also indicates that less than 40 percent of these majority students believe it is important to help promote racial understanding, and only 54 percent want to improve their understanding of other countries and cultures.

So we as faculty and staff must assist them in understanding and appreciating those who differ from them, be it race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, belief or economic status. We need to help the Creighton community understand the benefits of welcoming diversity onto our campus. To do this, we need to identify the specific learning objectives that are required, as well as the courses, programs and skills that are effective in achieving these. We need to make specific efforts to create and sponsor campus activities that appeal to all the different students we teach. We need to work to develop increased opportunities for faculty and staff involvement in study abroad, service learning and cultural immersion programs.

This need is especially prevalent in health sciences education. Our medical student curriculum now provides new components to prepare future health care providers for a nation of growing diversity, including areas of cultural/linguistic competency, multicultural, folk and alternative medicine in recognition that a lack of cultural competence is a major obstacle in eliminating health disparities. We need a concerted institutional effort to implement these principles, not just because federal and state government agencies, private foundations and professional associations now mandate it, but because it is the right thing to do.

If we do not effectively address this first objective, Creighton will likely fall behind other universities in terms of under-represented populations and our recruitment efforts among the minority applicant pools will fall short.

On the other hand, the benefits the Creighton community will likely see in addressing the diversity agenda include creating a culturally energized community of students, faculty and staff; being identified as creating a minority friendly campus; and being seen as an institution willing to embrace differences and promote varied constituent needs – faculty, staff, students, patients, customers and vendors.

OBJECTIVE TWO
Our second objective seeks a critical mass of under-represented minority students, faculty and staff that will constitute, at a minimum, a percentage of the Creighton population, consistent with demographics of Omaha and surrounding region.

According to 2004 estimates, the city of Omaha’s population is 21.5 percent non-white and the entire metropolitan region is 13.7 percent non-white. African-Americans make up the largest minority group with 13.2 percent of the city’s population and 7.6 percent of the regional population. Hispanics make up the second largest minority group with 9.1 percent of the city’s population and 6 percent of the regional population.

Overall the non-white population in the University is not far from that of the city of Omaha and above that of the Metropolitan region. In the fall of 2005, the Creighton student body was 18.1 percent non-white. Yet the distribution of the minority population differs considerably; only 3.2 percent of our students were African-American and only 3.3 percent were Hispanic students. This serves as evidence that more needs to be done to recruit, retain and mentor these under-represented minority students.

In terms of employment, Creighton has about 16 percent non-white employees both overall and in the faculty ranks. However, among faculty, only 3 percent are African-American and 2.6 percent are Hispanic faculty members. Clearly, more needs to be done to recruit, retain and mentor these under-represented minorities to faculty positions. So we need to devise recruitment plans to address population discrepancies and commit the necessary resources to implement minority recruitment plans.

For example, as our faculty/staff workforce ages and prepares to retire, we should leapfrog to improve representation of minorities by a “Growing Our Own” (GOO) strategy. By identifying women and men of color in our present employ as role models, they in turn could mentor and motivate junior members. They also could help the University identify and hire additional minority members. At the same time, their loyalty to Creighton would intensify. An aggressive internal promotion process for under-represented groups would generate momentum. In short, diversity success drives diversity momentum.

OBJECTIVE THREE
Retention rate of under-represented minorities – students, staff and faculty – will equal or surpass that of their majority counterparts.

The third objective goes hand and hand with the previous objective, namely retention. I am personally concerned and somewhat surprised by our track record in retaining students of color. While it is well above the national average for private institutions, it is still too high from my perspective.

If our goal is to welcome different ways of thinking, states of being and behaviors, while allowing individuals to develop to their full potential, then it is imperative that we learn to look beyond race, gender, ethnicity and sexual bias and learn to see the person.

We can best achieve a diverse community which supports Ignatian values by increasing and retaining the under-represented minority population to a level of equal representation of white, non-Hispanic members. This creates balance and allows individuals to interact in a common environment.

By eliminating disparities and providing an equal voice, we may foster communication and provide a forum in which individuals are not afraid to speak. If we as a community can increase interactions among individuals who differ in gender, race and ethnicity, we may foster the exchange of ideas, increase the awareness of different perspectives, and minimize feelings of isolation among groups.

Furthermore, by stimulating a dialogue that facilitates an understanding of the diverse values, beliefs and cultural traditions that make up our society, we as individuals may learn to recognize our own differences and understand how they contribute to our community.

As I mentioned before, the creation and maintenance of a diverse community must originate from the top with our administrators, faculty and staff leading the way for our students. The majority must first speak so others will be more apt to listen. The failure to establish a diverse community that fosters different perspectives will lead to individuals who are powerless to achieve their potential and a stagnate community that is unwilling to grow and unable contribute to the surrounding society.

But most important, improved retention of minority students provides those students the benefits of a Creighton education.

OBJECTIVE FOUR
Creighton will exhibit gender and ethnic balance when recruiting and retaining faculty, staff and students.

As illustrated above, we live in a world rich in diversity and ripe with opportunity, yet one in which many women and ethnic minorities still find it challenging to reach their full potential due to the imposition of overt or subtle (yet effective) barriers to achievement and success.

Given our Jesuit tradition and our public commitment to justice and to fostering an inclusive, compassionate and respectful environment for all students, staff and faculty, it is essential that Creighton University stands as a living testimonial to equity related to the rights of all to learn, work and prosper according to their efforts and talents, and to proactively break down contrived obstacles to the full Creighton experience for our students, faculty and staff.

It is our pledge to our constituents, from local to global, that all qualified individuals desiring to be formally affiliated with Creighton will be given an equal opportunity to thrive. To accomplish this objective, we will need to critically examine Creighton’s policies and procedures to assess their impact on diversity. This same review should be in place as we plan and allocate resources.

An unplanned and unbalanced approach is expensive and sporadic, leading to perceived confusion and lack of a commitment to diversity. Yet just as recruiting and retaining under-represented minorities will help us to Grow Our Own, so will creating a balance of ethnic and gender diversity. Good census data management will allow Creighton leadership to plan ahead to meet gender or minority goals.

OBJECTIVE FIVE
Creighton will develop strong relationships with local and regional minority communities.

Of all of these objectives, we do the best job in reaching out to the Omaha community especially in community service.

Service at Creighton is not just a “nice thing to do.” It proceeds from being a Jesuit institution of higher education where we assist men and women to become leaders in their careers and professions and to be men and women for and with others — especially in service to the poor and underserved in the world community. All divisions of the University recognize the value of an alliance with community leaders and how their voices can contribute to optimize Creighton's service to the community.

As I noted in my Convocation address, we know from previously collected data, that 82 percent of Creighton’s metro outreach is north, south and east of 72nd – in the neediest areas of Metro-Omaha. Creighton has stayed in this area to serve the poor and underserved of Omaha. We are proud to be the university that hears the voices of the unheard.

Numerous faculty and staff volunteer their expertise to provide free medical, dental, tax and legal services through various clinics and assistance programs to low-income populations throughout Metro-Omaha and the states of Nebraska and Iowa. You all know the impressively numerous ways Creighton University’s people (you) participate in community service and outreach.

Many of Creighton’s outreach programs are supported by federal funds. It is anticipated that in the next three to five years, some of those federal funds will be cut. Creighton will continue to seek sources of funding in order to continue to provide meaningful outreach activities and help our students become men and women for and with others.

A lack of outreach reduces the University’s community impact and compromises our mission. Yet, as we connect with community, the connection of shared values through outreach creates mutual respect, leading to steering and wooing of the “best minority and gender talent” to Creighton and aligns with our Growing Our Own strategy.

But outreach is but one aspect of relating to the minority communities. We also must forge meaningful involvement with organizations and associations such as the NAACP, the Urban League, La Raza, the El Museo Latino, OPS, Tribal Councils, and the Muslim and Jewish communities. Creighton must be placed in such a way that we become part of the catalyst for needed change, part of the decision-making apparatuses in these communities, and an institution whose counsel and expertise is sought by these communities and so many others.

Finally, our last objective should almost be taken for granted — that Creighton will exhibit zero-tolerance with respect to discrimination or harassment.

Faculty, staff, students, visitors and other constituents should be able to recognize and experience Creighton’s non-discriminatory climate, and we will continue to encourage progressive education/training efforts about the negative impacts of discrimination and harassment. In an era of increasing diversity and intercultural awareness, the University needs to continue to find ways to empower those who feel that their voice has been taken. University offices need to find ways to encourage victims to report hate acts, sexual harassment, assaults, etc.

In closing, the creation and maintenance of a diverse community must originate from the top with us – you and me – leading the way for our students. The majority must first speak, so others will be more apt to listen. The failure to establish a diverse community that fosters different perspectives will lead to individuals who are powerless to achieve their potential and a stagnate community that is unwilling to grow and unable to contribute to surrounding society.

So let us together, my friends, commit to and work to achieve our institutional priority of maintaining an environment that welcomes a diverse population of students, faculty and staff while empowering them to develop to their full potential. It is the right thing to do individually, and it is the right thing to do as an institution. God bless you all in your work today.

John P. Schlegel, S.J.
President