Syracuse University leaders said the community will need to take time to assess the diversity and inclusion report released last week before moving forward with any concrete measures.

The Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion released its report on March 21. The document included 33 recommendations, some short-term and some long-term, for the university to improve diversity on campus. At last Wednesday’s University Senate meeting, Chancellor Kent Syverud said he’s looking forward to campus community members reviewing the report and sharing their thoughts and feedback.

“Once that occurs, specific issues related to timing, resources and implementation will be explored,” said Kevin Quinn, SU’s senior vice president for public affairs, in an email.

Where the resources might come from could be particularly important. About one-third of the group’s recommendations come with a direct financial cost. Those suggestions mainly involve hiring additional faculty or staff, or allocating more funding to specific programs or offices, such as the Slutzker Center for International Services, the LGBT Resource Center and the Office of Campus Planning, Design and Construction.

The way SU’s budget works is that it is divided into “responsibility centers,” said Dawit Negussey, the chair of the University Senate’s Committee on Budget and Fiscal Affairs . Each school or college is a center that manages its own budget. It has sources of income, such as tuition or alumni donations, he said. So, in the case of hiring additional faculty, the individual school or college — not the university — would pay for the hire.

He added that hiring additional faculty of color — something suggested by the workgroup — wouldn’t be constructive if based on a quota. Instead, Negussey recommended being more data-driven and assessing if certain departments have had issues retaining faculty or have lagged behind in having diverse faculty.

Negussey suggested starting out by implementing one of the workgroup’s main suggestions, which is to establish a permanent diversity and inclusion council. He even proposed that each college could have its own council to address areas where it is lacking in terms of diversity.

A council would cost no money and would be a way to continuously address the issue of diversity and inclusion, Negussey added. All colleges have work to do to varying degrees, he said, but a council can ensure that diversity and inclusion is constantly at the forefront of conversation instead of being brought up with the report before fading into the background.

One group that stands to benefit from multiple recommendations in the report is international students. Omar Abed, president of the International Students Organization at SU, said he believes the Slutzker Center is understaffed, and that this is leading to difficulties for international students who need help with certain paperwork or who struggle transitioning to SU and the United States.

“If it keeps getting worse I think (international students) will be reluctant to tell other (international students) to come here,” Abed said of the center’s staffing issues.

The workgroup’s report, and some of the issues raised in it, coincide with the university’s Academic Strategic Plan, which is an element of Syverud’s Fast Forward plan. One of the goals in the initial draft of the plan was to sustain a more diverse campus.

Ultimately, Negussey said diversity is an issue that requires ongoing monitoring.

“Diversity is a continuing issue, but whatever decision we make, we will need to sit down and look at actual numbers and be data-driven in the decisions that are made,” he said. “We have to be very wise in using the funds we have in the budget.”

Published on March 30, 2016 at 12:05 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27