Spring Break
UT creates high-level diversity position
Issue date: 9/1/04 Section: News
AUSTIN (AP) - The University of Texas has created a senior position to oversee and improve diversity in everything from staff recruitment to course offerings.
The vice provost for inclusion and cross-cultural effectiveness will report to Sheldon Ekland-Olson, the university's executive vice president and provost.
Ekland-Olson and other university officials plan to meet this week to finalize the post's job description and plan a search for candidates, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
He said the position will address "all aspects of campus life, including the curriculum, how we represent ourselves to the world and how we recruit and retain faculty, staff and students."
The creation of the position is part of a broader effort by UT President Larry Faulkner to improve racial and ethnic harmony.
In May, Faulkner called for sweeping changes in both curriculum and culture to make the largest student body in the nation a more welcoming place for minorities.
The changes include requiring undergraduate courses on multiculturalism, rearranging statues of Confederate icons on campus to convey the artist's original intent and delaying fraternity and sorority rush until spring each year to give students time to get their social and academic bearings.
His recommendations followed a series of incidents that included the egging of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue and fraternity parties where blacks were portrayed in Jim Crow racial stereotypes.
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