PROGRESS?:

Colgate Moves to Improve Diversity: After protests a year ago, the university has added staff, addressed issues. (Brian Mannion, November 25, 2002, The Syracuse Post-Standard)

A year after Colgate University students protested over racial issues on campus, students and administrators say progress has been made.

The university added two positions focused on diversity, marked Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for the first time and began diversity training for the president and her staff.

"Colgate made a strong commitment to visibly improve diversity on campus," said interim Dean Adam Weinberg.

Administrators "have appeased us for the moment," Kyle Chandler, 21 and a senior, said. "The immediate response last year was strong..., but slowly but surely they died down.

Weinberg said there is movement. The most visible change, Weinberg said, is the creation of two positions - associate dean for affirmative action and employment initiatives and assistant dean of multicultural affairs.

Mr. Chandler has it exactly right; the administration at dear alma mater has appeased the protestors. It's proven nearly impossible to recruit minorities in significant numbers to come to a school in rural Central New York--in one of the poorest counties in the state--which gets over 100 inches of snow a winter. The culture shock is a little more than folks are willing to tolerate. So, instead, they add two new deans? When in doubt, bureaucratize. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 26, 2002 7:31 PM