Faculty, individually and collectively, next to the peer group, constitute the most significant aspect of the students'   development.  Thus, they are looked upon to create a nurturing environment in which students can flourish and develop to their fullest potential.  The faculty's sphere of influence transcends the classroom.  They not only play a primary role in ensuring the academic achievement of students, but also provide essential academic and career guidance to students.

TEACHING

The classroom is the place where faculty members, more likely than not, will have their most significant and broadest impact on student thinking, valuing and growth.  Therefore, faculty members must be deliberately conscious about the impact that their choices, behavior and attitudes in the classroom will have on students' attitudes regarding diversity.  To foster respect and appreciation for pluralism, faculty need to integrate information about traditionally marginalized groups into their courses and construct a classroom environment in which all students are encouraged and challenged to grow intellectually and affectively.

 GOAL:  Create a more balanced curriculum.

 STRATEGIES 

           Faculty Development

• To develop intellectual integrity in course content that will also accomplish the goal of respect for diversity, faculty members must educate themselves through individual effort or the numerous opportunities at Slippery Rock University and other university conferences about the critical roles that women and minorities have made to the disciplines.
• Institutional support must be prioritized to reflect an interest in development in the areas of minority and women contributions.  Travel and other discretionary funds need to be allocated on the basis of equity development.

           Classroom Transformation 

• Transforming courses, and ultimately the curriculum, is one significant way in which faculty members can develop and maintain students' intellectual curiosity and self-esteem by providing course content in which equity groups feel recognized and valued.  Additionally, faculty members can encourage (if not require) students to participate in or attend activities or programs that promote and recognize diversity beyond the classroom.
  
• Faculty members must establish classroom environments which offer the opportunity for full participation by all students in challenging and enlightening dialogues in which differences of opinion are welcomed and responded to with openness and respect.  They must promote a climate that encourages open communication and a willingness to explore new perspectives in a way that is cognizant and respectful of others.

•  Faculty must be shown that rewards are influenced by classroom environment, through tenure, promotion and sabbaticals.  The classroom environment should count in the evaluation process, particularly in the area of teaching effectiveness.  We need to be sure that our current evaluation instrument is telling us what we need to know about the classrooms.

           Program Evaluation

• Each department on campus should include equity consideration in its five-year review in terms of courses which include appropriate materials by, and about, women and minorities.
  
• Each department should review faculty development efforts to learn about the contributions of women and minorities to their discipline as part of the five-year review process.  The process of reviewing curriculum every five years provides an opportunity for faculty to enhance the role of multiculturalism within the university by working to transform the curriculum to reflect the pluralistic nature of our society and our students.  Our curriculum must embrace diversity to create classrooms that encourage our graduates to enter and enhance dynamic interactive, pluralistic communities.  Faculty should be encouraged to create new courses and modify existing courses where a departmental review finds inadequate representation of our pluralistic society within its curriculum.

FACULTY ADVISING 

Good advising as well as good teaching is important to the academic success of students.  Good advisement helps students realize their potential and achieve their goals in a timely manner.  Through the assistance of knowledgeable and conscientious faculty members dedicated to guiding students in making informed choices, students are able to select those courses that enhance their academic programs and successfully prepare them for life outside the academic community.  Good advisement that enables students to see the relationships between academic programs and career goals should have a positive effect on retention.  As advisors, faculty members fill a crucial role in enabling students to achieve their personal and professional goals.  Alexander W. Astin states in his book, Minorities in American Higher Education (Jossey-Bass 1985), that  "student-faculty interaction has a stronger relationship to  student satisfaction with the college experience than any other involvement variable, or indeed, any other student or institutional characteristic."  Therefore, faculty advisers must be keenly aware of the impact that their input and behaviors have on the students.

 GOAL:  Increase retention of minority and women students through good advisement.

 STRATEGIES

Encourage faculty to avail themselves of advisement workshops.

 FACULTY GOVERNANCE

 GOAL:  Increase representation of women and minorities.

 STRATEGIES

• Hiring minority and women faculty 

• Reward faculty for supporting diversity.