New Group to Adopt Recommendations from Students, Faculty and Trustees Committee
HARTFORD, Conn., December 11, 2007 -- The Board of Trustees of Trinity College has instructed President James F. Jones, Jr., to create a special council to begin instituting the recommendations of a yearlong commission that was established in the wake of several incidents on campus that were considered to be racist or sexist.
Under the Trustees’ directive, the Presidential Council must be formed no later than February 1, 2008 and would prioritize and implement many of the approximately 30 recommendations made by the Charter Committee on Campus Climate, which was created in November 2007 and whose final report was submitted to the College trustees this month. In addition, the Trustees will be given periodic progress reports.
“The Board is committed to an acceleration of the cultural transformation of our campus. Trinity College must change, and it will,” wrote Board of Trustees Chairman Paul E. Raether, in his December 8 letter to the campus community.
In that letter, Rather said the Trustees’ goal is for Trinity to be “a diverse community where each and every individual is not only welcome but feels him or herself to be a valued member with a personal, shared responsibility for the well-being of others and for the College as a whole.”
Creating the Presidential Council was one of the recommendations made by the 18-member Campus Climate Committee, which was co-chaired by Cheryl L. Greenberg, the Faculty Secretary and the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of History, and Philip Khoury, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees. The committee included administrators, faculty and students.
About half of Trinity’s 2,200 undergraduates in 2007 – when the racist and sexist incidents took place -- were female, and nearly 21 percent were students of color.
Alluding to the incidents that contributed to the atmosphere of “offensive acts of hostility and intolerance,” the Campus Climate Committee said that the College must act swiftly and forcefully to provide an environment in which students are not only tolerant of differences but appreciative of the diversity of experience and perspective such differences bring.
“We must be in the forefront…if we wish to remain competitive and provide an effective and meaningful education for our student,” the Campus Climate Committee report says.
The report outlines key goals and recommendations, with the first being the need to hold transgressors responsible for actions that violate the College’s standards. This would include the creation of an oversight panel that would address the adoption of a single non-discrimination policy to apply to all campus organizations. Also, the College’s Code of Conduct would be strengthened as well as its harassment policies, Integrity Contract and judicial procedures to ensure that they are consistent and effective.
The second goal is to provide as diverse a community as possible, covering not just gender and race but also socio-economic status, religion and birthplace. “We consider diversity a worthy goal in itself, but we also considered how we do compared with other liberal arts colleges,” the report says. “Trinity is certainly not the worst in regard to diversity, but we aspire to be among the best.”
The lack of social and academic spaces that would foster a greater sense of community and encourage engagement between and among different Trinity constituencies was another concern of the committee. Its members, in particular, pointed out that the absence of a student center and dorm spaces where students could congregate were hindrances to students commingling.
The fourth goal is to foster a stronger sense of community and mutual responsibility, partly by providing reliable transportation options into Hartford and partly by encouraging greater cultural collaboration among constituencies wherever possible.
Embedding the values of openness, intellectual flexibility and cultural literacy into the curriculum is yet another objective, one that could be achieved by continuing to advocate for a Hartford engagement graduation requirement and by encouraging students to do internships and get involved in city groups and organizations.
Lastly, the committee called for an even closer connection between Trinity and Hartford, enhancing the vast array of educational outreach programs, and cultural and arts events that are available to the community at large.