Fargo Forum
June 16, 2003

University system plans statewide diversity training
By Mike Nowatzki

The North Dakota University System's Diversity Council will kick off a major effort this fall to combat racism at the state's higher education institutions, the council's new president said.

Teams of college students, faculty and administrators will gather in Bismarck this fall for the first statewide diversity training program, Mary Jo Gonzales said.

"It's really about learning how to deal with each other," said Gonzales, project director of educational enhancement services at Dickinson State Unviersity.

The state Board of Higher Education allocated $50,000 last year to fund efforts to create a "culture of acceptance" on the state's campuses, system Chancellor Larry Isaak said.

The Diversity Council spent $10,000 on a diversity conference in February in Dickinson.  The training program will use the other $40,000, Gonzales said.

A meeting to roll out the training program is being planned for September, she said.

The training will be coordinated by the Minnesota Collaborative Anti-Racism Initiative (MCARI).  The joint program was started in 1992 by Minnesota church councils in response to the Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.

The MCARI training model already was use as the basis for Training Our Campuses Against Racism, a joint program of North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead and Concordia College.

"This is the first time the university system of North Dakota has ever done this," Gonzales said.

The training program will focus on combating and dismantling so-called "systemic and institutional racism."

"It is really designed to focus on issues of organizational change," Gonzales said.  "It talks about power and politics in organizations.  In that respect, differences can be seen in anything from gender and class to race and disability."

MCARI co-directors Carmen Valenzuela and James Addington will facilitate the training program.

MCARI has conducted anti-racism training for universities, nonprofits and the corporate sector, mostly in Minnesota and Iowa, Valenzuela said.

"What intrigues people most is the fact that there is something concrete that can be done about an issue that normally seems so complex and mercurial, you can hardly get your hands on it," she said.

While many people think of racism as something that is "done" to people of color, Valenzuela said they don't always notice how it can serve to maintain advantages for white people.

"And when we don't see what is coined as 'white privilege,' it's difficult to have an informed discussion around issues such as affirmative action," she said.

For instance, when private colleges save admission spots for children of alumni, "what results - with no one's malice - is essentially affirmative action for white people," she said.

The first step in the training process is analyzing each institution, Valenzuela said.

"It's not about ferreting out all the bigots," she said.  "It's not about going after individuals. It's about recognizing the systemic issue and then having a strategy that addresses the systemic pieces."

The Diversity Council "is to be commended for recognizing a way to deal with such a fundamental issue in our society," Valenzuela said.

Gonzales hopes the training won't be limited to higher education.  She wants to involve state lawmakers, chamber of commerce leaders, K-12 school administrators and other, "so they understand why we're doing what we're doing and so we can explain to them that they're as much of a part of the process as anything."

The training program is a major effort to create "a more welcoming environment on our campuses," said Mike Hillman, the university system's vice chancellor for academic affairs.

In another major initiative, the Diversity Council plans to name "diversity champions' to recognize those who promote diversity to address North Dakota's declining population.

The award program will probably be created next spring, said Gonzales, who received the Martin Luther King Jr. award at Washington State University, Pullman.

In fact, it was North Dakota's lack of diversity that convinced Gonzales, who grew up in a family of California farm works, to take the job at DSU 14 months ago, she said.

"The fact that the state Board of Higher Education gave us $50,000 to do this during a lean year is a real commitment," she said.