Diversity Action Council
Reports
What is Diversity at UNC Asheville?
I. Statement of Principles
UNC Asheville must prepare students to live and grow in a diverse world. We must provide our students, faculty, and staff with rich opportunities to engage with one another. We must recruit, enroll, hire, retain, and support underrepresented students, faculty, and staff in order to enhance our environment for learning and exchange. We want our campus to reflect the demography of our region and state. Thus, diversity must be integral to the UNC Asheville experience. We believe:
· Diversity is basic to a free society.
· Diversity is a matter of form as well as content.
· Diversity opposes coercive assimilation.
· The idea of diversity changes and requires continual review.
· The achievement of diversity is difficult; it takes practice and requires skill.
II. Definition
At UNC Asheville, diversity means creating and supporting an inclusive and sustainable community, one in which people of all backgrounds interact respectfully and in which each member is valued. To reach this goal requires that we enhance the range of human diversity on campus, including but not limited to dimensions such as race and ethnicity, age, religion, disability, socio-economic status, gender expression, gender and sexual identity, national origin, culture and ideological beliefs.
III. Context
We seek to examine and transform university structures, policies, and practices that reinforce privilege and advantage. We recognize that every member of our community has a role in creating a culture of inclusion.
By so doing, we prepare human beings to live in a diverse world. To navigate in such a world, we must have the capacity to empathize, to exercise patience, to encourage active listening, and to develop authentic relationships with people who are different from ourselves.
UNC Asheville is a community committed to intellectual growth for all participants and we value honest discourse. We realize that these efforts may sometimes become tense or difficult; nevertheless, UNC Asheville will be a safe place for all. Everyone in this community must act responsibly to achieve this goal.
Our thanks to all of you who sent feedback and ideas on diversity at UNC Asheville. This definition, now considered to be in its finished form, is nevertheless dynamic and subject to review and change as our work on campus proceeds. As always, we would be happy to hear from you concerning any aspect of this work. Comments?