Plan 2008: Some success, some failure at midpoint

Bernice Durand and Mike Thornton have embarked on one of the most difficult, yet potentially rewarding journeys on campus.

As the recently installed co-chairs of the Diversity Oversight Committee, both play instrumental roles in coordinating and guiding Plan 2008, a massive effort to create a more diverse and welcoming university community.

Launched in 1998, UW–Madison’s version of the UW System plan set ambitious goals for student and staff recruitment and retention, financial aid, campus climate, course development and accountability.

The stewardship of Durand, a professor of physics and associate vice chancellor for diversity and climate, along with Thornton, a professor of Afro-American studies, has the potential to shape the institution for decades to come.

Now that the plan is more than halfway to its conclusion, many on campus would agree that the effort has included elements of success and failure.

“We’ve made progress, but in a lot of areas, we haven’t made the progress we wanted to make,” Durand says. “There’s a level of frustration out there and it’s something we appreciate and understand and agree with completely.”

Overall, the numbers of students and faculty of color have increased. Pre-college programs, such as PEOPLE, have created a new “pipeline” of students of color that will grow in the coming years. Diversity is an institutional priority for students and administrators alike.

But, progress has been slower than many would like. The statistical increases have been modest, and some measures, such as retention, are not all positive. Due to the tough budget climate, funding for some diversity initiatives has decreased or is not in line with the plan’s ambitions.

Durand and Thornton, who succeeded Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Paul Barrows and English professor Deb Brandt as committee co-chairs last September, have been learning about successful initiatives, hoping to disseminate best practices.

“Our main goal is to find out what’s working best,” Durand says. “If it doesn’t seem to be making progress, we need to borrow ideas and strategies from other programs that are working.”

Neither Durand nor Thornton is an outsider to the issues. Thornton studies how people and institutions cross cultural and racial barriers. Durand helped research and draft Plan 2008, and she spearheads campus climate issues for the Office of the Provost.

One continuing emphasis is helping members of the university community to better understand campus climate, and the ability of students, faculty and staff to take simple steps to improve climate.

“Climate is the overall feeling you have about being part of this institution,” says Thornton. “It’s the feeling of being vested in the institution, and it in you.”

Durand and Thornton have studied the suggestions of a midpoint, independent review of Plan 2008 conducted by administrators from the University of Minnesota and Indiana University. That report concluded that the university has made noteworthy progress, but must do more to improve during the next few years. Among the suggestions: reduce the number of initiatives and increase their intensity, find ways to celebrate the gains being made, and find ways to improve accountability and communications aspects of the plan.

For now, Durand says, there are no plans to pare the number of initiatives, only to intensively study successes.

“With such a complex issue, there are no easy answers,” she says. “We hope our legacy will be an examination of what we do well and how to continue to improve. Our vision is not yet crystal clear.”