And Justice for All:
A Diversity Blueprint for the College of
Human Ecology, Cornell University
15th Flemmie Kittrell Lecture Series, October 24, 2006
Dr. Jenice L. View, George Mason University
Flag of the Haudenosaunee
(Iroquois) Nation
http://users.aol.com/donh523/navapage/iroquois.htm
Rocket Scientists Know All!!
My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent
Us Nine Pies
Gonna Miss You,
Pluto
Tiger Woods, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6674234/ Warren Little, Getty Images
Many Very Educated
Men Just Seem
Uneducated Now.
http://www.verican.info/asun/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=370&Itemid=10
male
http://dir.coolclips.com/Healthcare/Medical_Symbols/Male_Symbol/
female
http://dir.coolclips.com/Healthcare/Medical_Symbols/Female_Symbol/
intersexed
http://www.anesi.com/symbols.htm
Nine Basic Genders:
 Feminine Male,
 Feminine Female,
 Feminine Intersexed,
 Masculine Male,
 Masculine Female,
 Masculine Intersexed,
 Androgynous Male,
 Androgynouse Female, and
 Androgynous Intersexed.

Source: Kelly, Gary F. Sexuality Today The Human Perspective. New York: Mc-Graw Hill, 2004
Race: a social construct
What we know is what we don’t
know
Hard science
=
theories + numerical formulas +
software
≠
full knowledge
THE LESSONS OF METAPHYSICS
Hurt not others with that which pains yourself – Buddhism
http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/4_noble_truths.html
This is the sum of all true
righteousness – treat others, as
thou wouldst thyself be treated.
Do nothing to thy neighbor, which
hereafter thou wouldst not have
thy neighbor do to thee –
Hinduism
http://www.shaivam.org/gallery/i
mage/galshiva.htm
What is hurtful to yourself
do not to your fellow
man. That is the whole of
the Torah and the
remainder is but
commentary – Judaism
http://www.jewfaq.org/sig
ns.htm#MagenDavid
“What you
do not
yourself
desire, do
not put
before
others.”
Confucianis
m
http://www.r
eligioncults.com/E
astern/Conf
ucianism/co
nfuci.htm
Do unto all men as you would wish to have
done unto you; and reject for others what
you would reject for yourselves – Islam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, for this is the law and the
prophets – Christianity
http://www.gocek.org/christiansymbols/images/latincrs.gif
1 piece of pie + two or more siblings
=
big fight
Pie, gifts, it is all the same…
Dinosaurs (raptors)
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/nuraptorpix.htm
The Dodo
Bird of
Mauritius
http://www.geocities.com/peakoilaw
are/index.htm
http://www.cnn.com/NATURE/9910/01/ozone.hole.update/index.html
Of the world’s 6,900 languages, half will be
extinct in the next several decades. 516 will
be extinct in the next few years
•
•
•
•
•
Africa (46 total)
The Americas (170 total)
Asia (78 total)
Europe (12 total)
The Pacific (210 total)
http://www.ethnologue.com/nearly_extinct.asp
Old
growth
forests
“Biodiversity” means:
The variety of life on Earth at all its
levels, from genes to ecosystems, and
the ecological and evolutionary
processes that sustain it.
•http://cnx.org/content/m12151/latest/
Red
“delicious”
apple…
NOT!
Million Dollar Question
How
do
we
“do”
diversity?
“Talk amongst yourselves…”
Concerns about “doing” diversity:
• Promotes tokenism,
which is demeaning and
insulting
• It takes too long to do
• There is so much human
diversity that we will
never be “finished” with
these issues
• Cornell already “does”
diversity: Ezra said “I
would found an
institution where any
person can find
instruction in any
study."
• It is too expensive
Another possible fear:
“For all of our pride in our progressive
traditions, will Cornell discover an ugly
truth about our history much the way
Brown University – another bastion of
progressive thought and practice – did in
the Slavery and Justice Commission?”
“If so, what will truth and reconciliation
demand of us?”
Other possible concerns:
• Suppose our
president says
something
embarrassing in
public as did Larry
Summers at Harvard?
• Suppose we stir up
the kind of labor
problems they have
been having at Yale?
Cornell Mosaic
It is possible that:
celebrating diversity + advancing inclusion
≠
power-sharing
Step 1: Cultural Competence -Interpersonal
•
Can listen and behave without
imposing your own values and
assumptions on others
•
Can reach shared outcomes without
manipulating or wearing down others
with compelling evidence.
•
Carries an attitude of respect when
approaching people of different
cultures, which entails engagement in
a process of self-reflection and
self-critique;
•
Competence in multicultural
communication is being curious about
the other person and seeking solutions
that work across shared interests.
•
Has the ability to move beyond one’s
own biases
•
Can maintain a communication style
that is not based on being
argumentative and competitive.
•
Comfortable in asking questions when
uncertain or unclear about the
assumptions of an individual or group.
Source: Dr. Mark Hicks, George Mason University
Step 2: Institutional Audit
• Conduct an audit/inventory of what the
University and/or the College of Human
Ecology is doing now (for and with
community, students, staff, faculty, and
administrators)
• Develop a plan to address each
component where there are gaps.
Some examples of what Cornell is
already doing:
• Only Ivy League school that publishes annual
statistics about recruitment and retention of
students by race/ethnicity, gender, field of study
• Offers summer programs to attract women and
students of color into engineering, business,
industrial and labor relations, and hotel
management
• Offering free tuition, room and board to lowincome students
Step 3: Creating a vision and plan
for diversity
• Statement of overall intent
• A clear statement of what success looks like
• Clear statements about how to measure
outcomes
• The devotion of human and financial resources
to outcomes
• Stating and restating that we will not wait until
things are perfect before beginning to act
Step 4: Investing in diversity
Boeing Raptor
http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/gallery/ids.html
Boeing has made a business
decision to:
• Write a nondiscrimination policy covering sexual
orientation, gender identity, and expression
• Offer diversity training
• Offer domestic partner benefits and parity in all
other benefits incl. health, leave, retirement,
insurance, etc.
• Pay for transgender wellness and counseling,
incl. a Gender Transition Leader
• Pay for company-wide diversity councils and
resource groups for GLBT employees
Step 5: Leaving an Open Seat
• First ask, ”Who is missing from this
decision-making table?”
• Create a welcoming space for those who
are obviously missing
• Actively recruit those who are missing
• Leave an open seat for those you don’t yet
know are missing
Step 6: Be an Active (institutional and
personal) Ally Against Oppression
Everywhere
Examples of how be an ally include:
• Prohibiting the purchasing of products
made in sweatshops; grape boycotts
• Divesting from enterprises that oppress
(e.g., South African diamonds during
apartheid)
Step 7: Never Give Up
• "The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long,
But it Bends Towards Justice"
Cornell Staff and Community:
A Diversity Blueprint for Employment
and Administrative Issues:
• Connections with high schools for training,
including Cornell student community
service
• In-house awareness training programs to
raise consciousness and vocabulary
• In-house mentoring of new staff
Cornell Faculty and Students: A
Diversity Blueprint for Educational
Issues:
• Integrating diversity into curriculum, research,
teaching, extension work
• Efforts to achieve diversity linked to merit pay
• Best practices seminars: What are University of
Minnesota and University of Michigan doing
right?
• Recruitment and retention
Faculty Recruitment and Retention:
The (Un)changing Face of the Ivy League:
• The need for grad students and other
employees to unionize;
• The lack of recruitment for the growing number
of PhDs, especially to tenure-track positions;
• Unequal pay for equal work
Faculty Recruitment and Retention,
continued
• TIAA-CREF report:
• Family-friendly institutional policies such
as University of California and Princeton;
• Invest in “growing your own” PhDs to
supply the pipeline
• Invest in post-doctoral fellowships and
other institutional interventions to attract
and retain faculty of color (e.g., University
of Minnesota)
Faculty Recruitment and Retention,
continued
NYU Case Study:
• Include multiple definitions of diversity in
doing an assessment of the departments,
courses, and disciplines where faculty are
hired (e.g., are all the men in engineering
and all the women in education?)
Back to the Lessons of
Physics:
Diversity means:
•
•
•
•
•
Power-sharing
Radical democracy
Leaving an open seat
Being ever-vigilant
Being an ally against oppression, even
when everyone around you looks like you
• Being an ally against oppression, even
when you stand alone