{"content":[{"text":"First, the committee is too large. There are currently 23 members, approximately a third \n of whom serve as ex officio. However, at meetings, we have only once had more than \n seven people attend, and there have been times that we have had as few as three. Staff on \n the committee have been far more reliable in their attendance and participation than the \n faculty or ex officio members. These problems with attendance occurred despite the fact \n that for the last two years we have had actual projects to work on that required extensive \n research and writing to complete. Furthermore, when I asked for help with various \n writing and editing tasks, I received few responses, none of which actually resulted in \n another committee member taking on work.","bbox":{"left":0.147059,"top":0.091347,"width":0.6984170000000001,"height":0.156173}},{"text":"There are undoubtedly many reasons for this, but I believe some of these causes indicate \n how we might restructure the committee to make it more effective. I think the size of the \n committee makes members feel that their individual contributions don’t matter, and or, \n that the committee will continue its work without their help. While several of the ex \n officio members have been faithful in their attendance and extremely helpful, many ex \n officio members have never attended. Most of these ex officio members serve on the \n committee solely because they have been assigned through their holding particular \n positions, and thus, may not want to be actively engaged in the committee’s work, and or, \n are already working hard on diversity issues in their assignments. This contributes to the \n sense that the committee is a political entity, sponsored because it makes it look like the \n University cares about diversity, rather than a practical tool that should accomplish \n important work for the University. Although I believe that all members of the committee \n care deeply about diversity, the committee lacks a sense that it contributes to the \n important mission of furthering diversity and inclusion on campus.","bbox":{"left":0.147059,"top":0.265589,"width":0.704223,"height":0.24329399999999995}},{"text":"The committee has also suffered from the problem of direction, and who should trigger \n us to consider particular questions. Not knowing that as a Senate Committee, we would \n take direction only from the Senate, I inadvertently triggered a small turf-war when I \n agreed to serve only on the condition that I take up AVP Stockton’s charges. After some \n discussion, I was allowed pursue these charges and thus agreed to chair, but this scuffle \n revealed a problem with who could or should participate in directing the committee.","bbox":{"left":0.147059,"top":0.526952,"width":0.6984730000000001,"height":0.10382500000000006}},{"text":"Finally, I am very proud of the work we have done in the past two years, but that work \n was only possible because the committee comes with a $1500 yearly stipend (provided \n not by the Senate but by the OED). I used the money to pay two graduate students to \n conduct the preliminary research. I also paid them to write up their findings, which \n generated two “long reports.” I then condensed these reports into short summaries and \n made recommendations, which a small portion of the committee then critiqued. I re- \n wrote these reports with that feedback, resulting in the documents you now have. The \n stipend was crucial in our carrying out our charge.","bbox":{"left":0.147059,"top":0.648846,"width":0.6817879999999998,"height":0.1387489999999999}},{"text":"Options for Restructuring:","bbox":{"left":0.147059,"top":0.805816,"width":0.22542099999999998,"height":0.01677899999999999}},{"text":"1—Reduce the size of the committee from 23 to 6-8 people but keep it as a standing \n committee. Eliminate ex officio positions.","bbox":{"left":0.147059,"top":0.840513,"width":0.66002,"height":0.03420400000000001}},{"text":"2","bbox":{"left":0.495098,"top":0.937635,"width":0.00980399999999998,"height":0.01677899999999999}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}