Next Steps in the College and the meaning of Diversity

Greetings TAMU Geosciences,

Excellent comments and questions have come my way raising issues around the climate survey we have going.  Among them are two that I think are worth addressing here for everyone to see.

1. The ClimateQUAL survey is just the first step:
There is no way a very general survey like the one your are all now taking could ever be a complete sweep through all the various diversity and climate issues confronting the college.  But, what it can do is provide us all a 35,000 ft. overview of where our opportunities for improvement lie.  The plan from that point forward is convene groups of interested stakeholders to jointly plan the route forward, and hold focused meetings to flesh out solutions in much more detail.  I intend for most of this to happen during the early Spring of 2012.

2. What do we mean by Diversity?
This is a term that is sometimes loaded, always has many definitions among various people and organizations, and is always subject to revision.  I am not surprised this question came my way, so I will take my best shot at a working definition. 

I tend to take the most open view of diversity, preferring to include in that term all kinds of ethnic, gendered, cultural, religious, intellectual and sexual orientation diversity.  In the past decades, this term has most typically been shorthand for race and gender, but I think in an academic setting we really have to cast the most inclusive definition to have the most impact. 

The reason for adopting a broad definition is that it explicitly honors all the kinds of visible and invisible identity we carry with us, which are often handled very differently in social interactions and workplace/educational settings but which all come under the heading of "diversity".  A broad definition also offers the most tools for growing the pool of people who join us here at Texas A&M Geosciences.  If one looks at all dimensions of identity, then any given faculty member is likely to be able to connect to some similar aspect of identity of the widest array of students, for example, regardless of which other aspects of identity are different.  While it is ultimately desirable to have our College resemble the State of Texas in all aspects, we will not get to that place overnight, and we must get there with all the people who are working and studying here today.  By acknowledging the importance of all aspects of identity and diversity, then we maximize the dimensions along which we can build successful mentoring relationships and build the most welcoming environment that we can. 

Keep the hard questions coming!  I am glad to provide my perspective on all of these important issues for what that's worth and more importantly open the dialog of these topics as we move forward as a community of geoscientists. 

Until next time - Eric