PRATT INSTITUTE
2012-2013 DIVERSITY COMMITTEE REPORT
The Diversity Committee completed its second year in operation in the 2012-2013 academic year and
submitted a report of its activities and findings to President Schutte in September 2013. The report
summarizes the committee’s activities during the past academic year as well as status of
recommendations from the prior year and any other relevant updates. The prior year’s report as well as
all supporting information and data is available on the Diversity page of my.pratt.edu.
The full Diversity Committee met three times: on September 25th and November 6th of 2012, and April
24th of 2013. The subcommittees met separately, reporting back to the full committee periodically on
their progress. The major developments of the committee included an anonymous survey of faculty
and staff on the topic of diversity, Pratt’s engagement of the services of an esteemed diversity
consultant, the committee’s approval of a definition of diversity for the Institute, and a Diversity
Symposium held at Pratt in May 2013. These developments and others are described in more detail
below in the report.
A. Definition of Diversity
The committee reached consensus on the following definition that is intended to capture the full range
of individual differences that contribute to the diversity of the Institute and will frame our
understanding of the term as we embark on an effort toward enhancing diversity at Pratt. Last year’s
report noted the importance of developing a definition for this purpose.
At Pratt Institute, diversity is represented by a mosaic of unique individuals from a variety of racial,
ethnic, religious, gender, sexuality, geographic, cultural, age, physical ability, and socioeconomic groups.
Each individual brings his or her own unique intellectual, artistic, and creative gifts to create a richness of
differences in our community. As a leading college of art and design devoted to a creative learning
community, Pratt recognizes the strength that stems from a diversity of perspectives, values, ideas,
backgrounds, styles, approaches, experience and beliefs. We aspire to continue to grow as a place that
always welcomes and encourages individuals of all backgrounds to contribute to and be part of the Pratt
culture.
B. Diversity Symposium
In an effort to increase visibility of Diversity Committee on campus and awareness of diversity issues
among students, faculty and staff, as recommended in last year’s report, the Diversity Committee
hosted a symposium on May 21st, 2013 to begin an open discussion on the topic of diversity, its role in
the education, work and campus environments, the current state of diversity at Pratt, and ideas for
enhancing student, faculty and staff diversity going forward. Last year’s report highlighted a compelling
need to improve communication throughout the campus, encourage candor among members of the
Pratt community, and provide a safe place for discussion of issues related to diversity. The symposium
consisted of a panel discussion followed by questions from the audience and generated a very
stimulating and lively discussion. It was held in the Admissions Lecture Room in Myrtle Hall and was
filled with members of the Pratt community, primarily employees, including President Schutte and other
representatives of senior leadership. (In the future we will seek to host similar forums during a time
more convenient for students and faculty to attend.) The following individuals participated in the panel
at the symposium: Maria Teresa Asare-Boadi, May 2013 Pratt graduate (M.S., Communications Design)
served as the Graduate Intern for Diversity Programming; Deb Bright, Chairperson of Fine Arts, and until
recently Dean of Fine Arts at RISD where she was an active participant in many of its diversity initiatives;
Young Hah, Director of Graduate Admissions, Pratt alumni (MFA, Painting), originally from Korea; Jean
Howard, Professor of Humanities, Columbia University and served as Columbia's first Vice Provost for
Diversity Initiatives and directed Institute for Research on Women and Gender; Tracie Morris, Professor,
Humanities and Media Studies, also a poet and performer of diversity-themed works and a Brooklyn
native; Amir Parsa, Special Assistant to the Dean, formerly Chairperson of Art & Design Education,
internationally recognized artist and author, originally from Iran. (A fuller description of the
backgrounds of the panelists is attached.)
Initially each of the respective panelists was asked to speak briefly about their experience living,
working, creating in diverse environment and how has it influenced their perspectives, relationships,
creativity, work, and artistic expression. The respective backgrounds revealed a wealth of diverse
experiences, including witnessing, and some participation in, the civil rights movement and
desegregation, and international conflicts, as well as societal response and resulting impact on
education and a broad range in terms of how the panelists experienced things from their own racial,
national origin, age and sexual orientation perspectives.
The next questions were open to anyone on the panel to answer and/or respond to points made by
fellow panelists:
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What is/should be the role of diversity as it relates to students, employees, leadership,
community, and curriculum?
How would greater diversity and inclusion benefit Pratt as a whole?
What challenges and opportunities exist to increasing the emphasis on diversity and
inclusion?
Some of the major themes and issues that arose during the discussion included the following:
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Need to for follow-up following the symposium and to achieve tangible results
The separation between the Pratt campus and the surrounding community
Need for socioeconomic diversity, scholarships, financial aid to support students
Expanding opportunities for hiring more diverse faculty
Crucial importance of leadership commitment, support and advocacy on behalf of diversity
Lack of feeling of community, affinity groups, mentorship opportunities on campus for
underrepresented minorities
Prospective student and employee perspectives re: diversity at Pratt and the current
representation of diversity in student body and faculty and staff
Some examples of successes on campus
Ultimately the symposium appeared to at least be a good start to a broader discussion on diversity open
to the whole campus and is something that should continue. The number of people in attendance and
level of interest and energy on the topic was very encouraging.
C. Utilization of diversity consultant
Pratt Institute recently engaged the services of Cambridge Hill Associates to provide consulting services
on its diversity initiative, a recommendation from last year’s report. Jane Tuohy, a noted diversity
expert who has performed consulting services for many higher education clients, including RISD and the
CUNY system, is the primary representative, along with Janet Baker. Jane originally made a brief
presentation on her services to senior staff in September 2012. The consultants were on campus for
two days, on January 30th and 31st of 2013, to meet separately with each senior officer as well as a
meeting with the full diversity committee.
During the January visit the consultants discussed with each respective senior staff member their
perspective on diversity and inclusion at Pratt. Emphasis was placed on the importance of centrality of
diversity to the Institute’s operations, integration with the strategic plan, and institutional commitment.
The consultants also pointed out the reasons behind diversity and inclusion initiatives for art and design
colleges. With the diversity committee the consultants reviewed the 3 stages of development of
diversity initiatives, as well as comparison of Pratt to other art and design schools and discussion of best
practices from other schools. There were also creative learning exercises to demonstrate the operation
of diversity and to identify future goals for the Institute related to diversity.
Cambridge Hill produced a SWOT analysis and aspirational statement following its January visit. Overall
they note that although Pratt faces some obstacles, it is in a unique position as one of the premier art
and design institutions to use design thinking to develop a distinctive and creative approach to
addressing diversity and inclusion and that its advantages ultimately outweigh the negatives. They
advocate that Pratt leaders develop a future model of diversity that is pluralistic and addresses
differences for now and in the future.
There will be a number of activities led by the consultant over the next 2 years , including planning and
ongoing support with the diversity committee and senior leadership, additional analysis and research,
an innovation panel with outside experts participating, a leadership retreat, and finally the identification
of actionable steps to achieve improved diversity and inclusion. The innovation panel will be open to
the whole campus and is tentatively scheduled for early in the Spring semester. It will encompass a half
day presentation and discussion by diversity experts from higher education institutions and other
organizations.
Cambridge Hill has also advised the Institute on appropriate means of increasing the pool of qualified
diverse job applicants as well as those with successful experience in diversity efforts, educating hiring
managers and search committees, and recognizing and minimizing the influence of unconscious bias in
Institute hiring and other decisions, issues noted in last year’s report.
D. Results of Pratt Institute Diversity Survey
The Diversity Committee conducted a survey of faculty and staff per the recommendation in last year’s
report. Slightly over 300 Pratt employees, including both faculty and staff, completed the anonymous
online survey regarding diversity this past year. The survey asked a number of questions designed to
assess employees’ opinion and attitudes related to diversity at Pratt and the current climate on campus
as it relates to diversity as well as offering an opportunity to provide illustrative examples.
In terms of what categories fall under the rubric of diversity, it is not surprising that the vast majority
listed race, ethnicity and gender with slightly less considering age, sexual orientation and gender
identity/expression as elements of diversity. Well over half of respondents also considered national
origin, religion, and socioeconomic class as characteristic of diversity. There was no single category for
disability so it is not represented as an element of diversity despite being a protected category under
the law. Some respondents, although much less than the majority, indicated that physical ability,
mental health, or addiction/recovery status, all of which could meet the criteria for disability, would be
considered as part of diversity.
One very encouraging outcome of the survey is that over 89% of respondents consider it important that
the workplace have a diverse and inclusive environment, with two thirds of respondents stating it is very
important. A similar very large majority, nearly 87%, see the benefits to the organization from having a
diverse faculty, staff, and student body. This confirms what was noted in last year’s report, that there is
considerable interest within the Pratt community in diversity and many existing resources that can be
utilized to advance the initiative, as was evidenced from “diversity jams” and town hall meetings held on
campus.
Although an overwhelming majority of respondents deem it important, the overall sense of the current
environment at Pratt, in terms of diversity and inclusion, is very much neutral, echoing a common
refrain also noted in last year’s report. This seems to be the general impression of Pratt externally prior
to becoming an employee and does not seem to change significantly after joining the Pratt workforce,
based on the responses to the survey. It is also interesting that few respondents indicated that their
sense of the work environment did not have a major impact on the decision to work at Pratt. Neutrality
could also describe how welcome faculty and staff feel on campus. Only 60% of respondents agreed
that they felt welcome at Pratt, certainly less than what we would desire.
There are also some other troubling indicators from the survey results. Approximately one quarter of
respondents had either directly experienced or witnessed an incident of bias or discrimination at Pratt.
Over a third of respondents agreed, or at least agreed somewhat that there is racial tension on campus.
And there was not a particularly strong response regarding the Institute’s policies and efforts in support
of diversity and equality, with the response being essentially neutral regarding the state of equality and
fairness on campus.
As much as there is strong consensus for a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming environment, there is no
clear consensus on how to achieve that and attract more diverse candidates to Pratt. There was some
recognition and acknowledgment from the results of the need to host events and invite guest speakers
to celebrate diversity on the Pratt campus.
There were over a hundred examples offered of incidents of discrimination or bias that had been
experienced or witnessed by respondents. A very large number of the examples were focused on
sex/gender discrimination, including a range of actions or attitudes, from relatively subtle bias, lack of
respect and use of stereotypes to sexist comments to disparities in pay between male and female
employees and sexual harassment. Examples were also provided of bias or discrimination based on
race, ethnicity, national origin, disability and sexual orientation. These examples also ranged from
implicit or latent bias to instances of blatant discrimination and harassment. Several comments noted a
lack of diversity in higher level positions at Pratt and in the faculty of several departments. A number of
answers indicated that there was not enough consideration of employees and students with disabilities
and that the campus is largely not accessible for those with physical disabilities. Many examples
touched on a lack of respect and understanding toward some based on their sexual orientation or
religious beliefs, as well as non-native English speakers being treated with condescension and
disrespect.
The Diversity Committee plans to have several focus groups as well as continue with town hall meetings
on diversity, hosted by the campus climate subcommittee, as we continue to delve deeper into
employee experience and attitudes regarding the campus climate and strive to advance the diversity
initiative at Pratt.
E. Conclusion
Although at the very beginning stages of its diversity initiative, Pratt has begun to make diversity a
serious priority that can advance its mission as an educational institution and ultimately achieve a
stature where it can point to its diversity as a means to attract potential students and employees, and
further advance the organization based on the presumption that a diversity of ideas, perspectives,
backgrounds, approaches and experience will strengthen the organization.
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Pratt would like to be able to promote itself as a diverse and welcoming campus environment to
prospective students as well as faculty and employees. To that end we intend to follow up on
the material gained from surveys with focus groups to pinpoint ways to improve hiring practices
and retention of employees.
We also intend to emphasize diversity activities at Pratt on our external website, to attract a
more diverse student and employee applicant pool. We will also continue hosting activities
similar to this past year’s symposium, including the Innovation Panel scheduled for the Spring
semester facilitated by the diversity consultant, and bring outside speakers on various diversity
topics to campus to speak to students, faculty and staff.