ability to attract the brightest minds from all backgrounds and experiences to join our community of faculty, staff, and students. Our commitment to diversity ensures that Carolina continues to be a place where students will leave excited by the possibilities of a diverse and global society, and where faculty and staff will be eager to share their talents. I was very fortunate to be part of a chancellor-led university delegation that participated in a summit at the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. These events were designed to explore how students, faculty, and staff could systematically develop skills and knowledge relevant to effective work across cultural boundaries. The conference was informative, and I believe we made a positive contribution to it. But more important was the opportunity for our delegation to reflect on the current state of diversity on our own campus during our travels and time together. Those were galvanizing conversations, and they motivated then-Chancellor James Moeser to convene a broad-based campus- wide task force on diversity. In accepting the task force report’s recommendations (2005), the chancellor announced specific initiatives to help the university communicate its commit- ment to diversity and annually monitor progress. Also tied to the task force report was the appointment of an associate provost for diversity and multi- cultural affairs. The intent was to signal an expanded effort to improve upon what we were already doing well so that the campus community could become even more diverse and inclusive. This report was generally well received. It didn’t make our campus perfect overnight, and I will be the first to say we still have a lot of work to do. But taking the time and effort to convene campus leaders and to have serious conversations about doing better says a lot, I think, about our campus culture. Since that report was released, the university has made a major effort to focus on access and affordability for low-income students from North Carolina and around the country. Through the Carolina Covenant, we have promised to provide admitted students from low-income families the full cost of their education so they can graduate debt-free. They must satisfy all of the normal admissions requirements. These students are admitted on a need-, gender-, and race-blind basis. Then they are considered for the Carolina Covenant program. As part of their admission, RLI 263 5 Diversity in Research Libraries ( C O N T I N U E D ) APRIL 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC It is the cumulative effect of many initiatives that makes the difference we seek.
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