(NAME-MCE) "Best Practices" Earn OSU National Diversity Award

[Anselmo Villanueva]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cynthia del Rosario <cyn at u.washington.edu>
Date: Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 9:33 PM
Subject: "Best Practices" Earn OSU National Diversity Award

"Best Practices" Earn OSU National Diversity Award

Terryl Ross, director of OSU's Office of Community and Diversity,
accepted the "Committed to Diversity" Award from Minority Access Inc.,
a Washington, D.C.-area non-profit working to expand minority
involvement in education, employment, and research.

About 30 universities and colleges received the 2008 award, among them
Southern California, Purdue, Ohio State, Colorado State,  Auburn,
Syracuse, New Mexico, and Michigan.

Oregon State and its fellow awardees "genuinely seem to appreciate the
value of diversity in creating a well-rounded educational experience,"
said Andrea D. Mickle, president of Minority Access.  Minority Access
looks for good role models, Ross said, and Oregon State's many
initiatives provided the organization with many examples:

*  Diversity action plans within several OSU colleges and schools;
*  The only campus in the United States with six cultural centers,
five of which are established in perpetuity through permanent
covenants with the university;
*  A tenured faculty-diversity hiring initiative;
*  The Differences-Power-Discrimination (DPD) class required of all
OSU undergraduates;
*  The Women's Advancement and Gender Equity (WAGE) office;
*  A "vibrant" international students program;
*  Expansion of the OSU's undergraduate study abroad program;
*  The "Voices Project," which gives students an opportunity to have
authentic dialogues about diversity;
*  Award-winning gay and lesbian support efforts;
*  And one of the largest and longest-standing Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. celebrations for colleges in Oregon.

The "best practices" award "gives validity to our past and direction
to our future," Ross said.

"While it's good to be in the same room with programs that are
considered diversity leaders from across the country, I don't go to
bed thinking about how great we are. I go to bed thinking about what
we need to do better," he added. "The challenge is to be more
proactive in our offices and classrooms.  We still have too many
people who feel marginalized on this campus."

Ross observed that for OSU students to succeed after their university
experience, they must be prepared to enter a world that is "far more
diverse than that of their teachers. We have to help them to see
diversity as a critical life skill and not as a politically correct
issue. As Oregon's only land grant university, we should look like
Oregon, and we should be its most inclusive and welcoming campus."

Thursday, October 16, 2008 ~ by Ed Curtin

*************************************
Terryl J. Ross, Ph.D.
Director, Community and Diversity
Office of the President, 330 Snell Hall
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon  97331-1634
Phone (541) 737-4381 | Fax (541) 737-8232 Terryl.Ross at oregonstate.edu
*************************************