By: Aneyceia Brim
The University has launched a new Diversity Strategic Plan for the fall, aimed at making the school a more diverse community.
“Diversity includes attention to identity characteristics such as age, disability, sex, race, ethnicity, religion/spiritual tradition, gender identity and expression, sexual identity, veteran status, job status or socioeconomic class, nation of origin, language spoken, documentation status, personal appearance and political beliefs,” as the University defines it within the plan.
The plan is broken into four goals that the institution hopes to focus on: recruitment and retention, a more inclusive and diverse climate, community connections and engagement as well as alumni connections and outreach.
The student body is currently overwhelmingly dominated by Caucasians and the school has only seen a four-percent increase rate of students of color since 2014.
Students of color are defined as anyone who identifies as American Indian, Asian, black, Hispanic or Pacific Islander.
According to Christine Mica, Interim Vice President of Enrollment, the University is working hard to fix that.
“The University continues to pursue steps to make the school a more inclusive environment for all students, including students of color, those identifying with the LGBT community, and those from a variety of socio-economic, religious, political, cultural, and other backgrounds,” Mica said. “This is truly critical to our liberal arts mission. These changes are taking place both in ways that students may or may not always see.”
Currently, students of color make up 33.4 percent of the 6,720 applicants who apply to be undergraduates at Puget Sound.
According to Mica, the school has planned to combat the lack of diversity by partnering with Tacoma Public Schools (TPS). The Tacoma community is more diverse than the student body on campus, and Mica states that since the plan was implemented last year, the enrollment of students from TPS has more than doubled.
The plan has introduced several new workshops on sexual assault, violence, sexual orientation and diversity, diversity training for faculty, new staff and faculty members of color, a Diversity Summit and a new mandatory academic requirement that teaches students about inequalities among various groups.
Mike Segawa, Dean of Students, has worked with the University for the past 12 years.
He describes the plan as “ongoing work” that was first conceptualized about three or four years ago and closely monitored by Chief Diversity Officer, Michael Benitez.
While Segawa does not believe that any plan can be perfect and there is always room for improvement, he thinks the main focus should be on operationalizing the plan, the timeline for the goals, the benchmarks of success, and execution.
“Student groups, faculty, staff — all have been involved at some level, creating this and providing feedback on it,” Segawa said. “When it’s such a collaborative effort, it also makes it really hard for it to be a perfect document from any perspective.” The entire plan can be found on the University’s website.