December 2005 Update: Progress Indicated at WSU
by Doug Chin
After the last meeting in September with WSU officials regarding the case of racial and sexual harassment on an Asian American student and WSU relations with Asian Pacific Islanders, it was agreed that there would be on-going meetings between WSU and the API community to discuss institutional changes that need to occur to make the Pullman campus a better place for APIs. Accordingly, Doug Chin (OCA) and Karen Yoshitomi (JACL) met with WSU Vice-President Michael and members his staff, and the V-P for Public Relations and V-P for Student Services in early November on the issue of institutional changes.
Apparently, some progress is being made. WSU has (1) retained an API professor who was though to lose his teaching contract because he supported the student demands (2) hired an API and African American recruiters, (3) provided funding for Multicultural Student Services, (4) made arrangements for students and staff to attend cultural sensitivity training, and (5) shifted the responsibility of investigating racial and sexual harassment incidents to the Center for Human Rights. The Office of Equity and Diversity is currently developing a strategic plan that would, among other goals, (1) increase the percent of faculty of color by five percent in the next five years, and (2) achieve - in five years- an undergraduate enrollment of students of color that equals the percentage of non-white high school seniors in the state.
© 2005 OCA-Greater Seattle
OCA - GREATER SEATTLE CHAPTER