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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Diversity Initiatives


Last year, we launched a diversity recruitment plan in an effort to build a workforce that mirrors our student body. While this goal has long been important to us, we had not been successful in moving it forward. I am pleased to tell you that we have made exciting progress in the last year and can report good success.

Our initiatives and our progress:

1. Target a finite number of college positions where recent data shows limited diversity even though a pool of minority candidates exists.
Progress: We focused our efforts on openings for English, business, history and math professors and achieved significant results. For the 2003-04 academic year, diverse faculty members have been hired in these disciplines: English, math, history, business, chemistry, health and physical education, nursing, physics and engineering science, transitional studies and psychology.

2. Develop partnerships with universities that graduate a high percentage of diverse candidates.
Progress: Two representatives from the Human Resources Department this year visited Howard University, an historically black college, to begin a dialogue. That dialogue has resulted in an invitation from Howard to return this fall to further introduce MCC and community colleges in general to doctoral students in Howard's "Preparing Future Faculty" program.

3. Identify opportunities for recruiting faculty of color.
Progress: In conjunction with the Human Resources Department, faculty identified conferences with strong recruitment potential, such as the Organization of American Historians, Modern Language Association, the Community College Humanities Association and others. We sent representatives to eight such conferences with the charge to spread the word about MCC and interest individuals in openings here.

4. Replenish adjunct faculty pools with new candidates, including minority candidates.
Progress: Our Alice H. Young Internship Program continues to bring diverse faculty into our adjunct pool. Last year, we had 12 interns (i.e. adjuncts) in each semester. Two of those interns have been hired as full-time, tenure track faculty for Fall 2004. Several others have become adjunct faculty.

5. Review and redesign, if necessary, the Alice H. Young Internship Program.
Progress: New marketing materials are in the works and we are looking at ways to streamline our internal processes. Additionally, the College hosted a community reception last fall at the Damon City Campus to recognize Dr. Young and promote the internship program.

6. Meet with college employees of color to review initiatives and seek feedback.
Progress: We have scheduled focus groups to get feedback on our diversity initiatives and are looking forward to insights gained from those meetings. Additionally, we celebrated diversity and the success of our initiatives on June 11-a celebration we plan to hold every year.

Success like this doesn't just happen; it is directly related to our focus, commitment and teamwork. Those qualities, plus creative thinking, will ensure our future success in developing a diverse workforce.

I extend my appreciation to all those administrators, faculty and staff who contributed to our progress in the last year.

Thank you.


R. Thomas Flynn
President
06/19/2003