Diversity remains elusive

Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005 | 10:40 a.m.

Diversity breakdowns

Southern Nevada's higher education institutions struggle to recruit and retain minority students, faculty and staff that reflect the demographics of the larger population. Hispanics, one of the fastest growing populations, are particularly underrepresented. See a complete breakdown, by following the link to the graphic below:

Recognizing the ever-growing need to better serve the state's minority population, Rogers and Regent Linda Howard have made diversity issues a top priority for all Nevada System of Higher Education institutions.

Rogers has mandated that each president hire a diversity officer as part of their executive leadership and is asking regents to consider hiring a system-level diversity officer.

Howard recently resurrected a Board of Regents committee on diversity to encourage institutions to direct more money and people to recruiting and retaining minority students, faculty and staff.

"It's an issue that everybody should be involved in," Rogers said.

The complexion of the faculty, staff and student bodies at the various institutions does not yet reflect their neighboring populations, and there isn't enough being done to recruit and retain minorities, Rogers and other community leaders said. The disparity is greatest among Hispanics.

That's a whole segment of society that won't reap the benefits of higher education unless the system does more to address their needs, Rogers and Howard said. They want the system to work to close the gap now so that it does not widen as more minorities graduate from high school.

Right now in Clark County, according to state estimates, minorities represent 39 precent of the adult population 18 and older. Twenty-one percent is Hispanic.

But minorities represent 55 percent of the population 17 and under, and 36 percent of those are Hispanic.

Rogers began meeting monthly with community leaders in the black, Asian and Hispanic communities in January and this summer drafted the Community College of Southern Nevada's new diversity professional, Debra Lopez, to work with his personal attorney, Francisco Aguilar, to assess the holes in the system's diversity efforts.

Howard said she was appalled to learn at her first diversity and security committee meeting in September that most institutions have only one staff member responsible for diversity and that the budgets for diversity initiatives are miniscule.

The current focus is on race and ethnicity, but when Lopez talks about diversity, she means embracing all differences -- be they disabilities, sexual orientation or even variances in the political spectrum. The issue is ensuring equal access and a welcoming environment where everyone has a chance to succeed.

Topping the list of concerns for Howard and the community leaders is doing more to recruit and retain minority faculty, which includes making sure they receive promotion and tenure. If students see people who look like them working at the university, they'll be more likely to succeed.

Community leaders also support Rogers' push to have an executive-level diversity officer at each institution, one separate from human resources who will fight to see that diversity initiatives are followed. UNLV, Great Basin and Western Nevada Community College all have combined diversity and human resources offices that don't report directly to the president, according to a system assessment.

CCSN and Nevada State College only added senior diversity professionals in July.

At a recent luncheon hosted by Rogers at the exclusive Stirling Club, about a dozen community leaders said the state's institutions have often paid lip service to diversity without doing much to promote it.

"We've almost gotten to a point where diversity is a buzz word, and as long as we say diversity it is accepted that we are embracing difference," Hannah Brown, president of the Urban Chamber of Commerce, said. "But if we are not giving that person the authority and responsibility to make a difference, then we are spinning our wheels."

UNLV President Carol Harter and UNR President John Lilly have each questioned the need for a system officer, believing that it's a waste of state money when the institutions have their own initiatives in place.

Harter also questioned the validity of having one person responsible for diversity. She merged the diversity and human resources departments three years ago after a federal audit found the diversity office failed to enforce federal equal opportunity requirements.

Under her administration, each vice president is responsible for ensuring diversity, and her chief of staff, Juanita Fain, the only minority in her cabinet, enforces that, Harter said.

"Integrating it into the culture is much harder than having a token person in charge," Harter said, "and integrating it into the culture, the literature says, is the only way to impact lasting change."

Christina Littlefield may be reached at (702) 259-8813 or at clittle@ lasvegassun.com.