To assess the status of faculty diversity, UC President Robert C. Dynes appointed an 11-member systemwide task force, which is chaired by UCLA Associate Vice Chancellor Rosina Becerra, to review faculty diversity.
The task force review will include an in-depth analysis of faculty demographic data, campus visits, and an examination of existing reports and studies of gender equity and faculty diversity at the University of California and peer institutions.
A Web site on the history and progress of the task force can be found at: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/facultydiversity
The Web site will serve as a key resource of data, task force contacts and scheduled campus visits. In addition, the site also has biographic information on task force members.
The task force sees its work as a way to convey information about faculty diversity to UC faculty and academic administrators, and also to provide an opportunity for academic leadership at UC to engage in strategic planning to address campus diversity.
In fact, one of the most compelling challenges facing the University of California is the task of developing a faculty whose competent background, life experience and research interests address the changing needs of the state.
Following the site visits, the task force will develop a report of faculty diversity and UCOP will then convene a systemwide meeting of faculty and academic administrators, modeled after the President's Summit on Faculty Gender Equity, held in November 2002.
The two-day Summit on Faculty Diversity will feature working groups to address the findings from the task force program review and make recommendations for future actions to address faculty diversity.
The task force is scheduled to submit a preliminary report to the UC chancellors in January 2006.
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