Provost

Common Ground Action Committee

Charge* (for 2005-2006 and subsequent sessions)

The committee shall monitor implementation and outcomes of the Embedded Action Plan contained in the "Action Plan & Summary Report" of August 2005. In particular,

  • The CGAC shall engage consultants every other year to re-establish Common Ground values.
  • The CGAC will set deadlines and expect reports on planning and progress from leaders of various units that have assigned action items.
  • The CGAC will establish, collect, and publish the benchmark data against which institutional progress will be measured.
  • The CGAC will provide the President with semi-annual summaries of 
action taken and progress toward goals.

*This statement is taken from the August 2005 "Action Plan & Summary Report" produced by the 2004-2005 Common Ground Action Committee (CGAC).

Membership

The members of the committee are appointed by the President and serve staggered two-year terms. Ex officio members include:

  • Provost or Designated Representative
  • Associate Vice President for Human Resource Services

  • Dean of Admission

  • Director of Common Ground

The documents creating the committee for 2005-06 required that it have student, faculty and staff members and that the membership not exceed 10. In recent years, the membership was expanded beyond 10.

2008-09 Membership:

  • Adrian Bitton, student
  • Jane Dowrick, Director, Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning
  • Nuray Grove, Director, ESL Services
  • Andrew Gurka, Area Coordinator, Richmond College
  • Glyn Hughes, Director, Office of Common Ground
  • Miles Johnson, student
  • Kirk Jonas, Interim Associate Provost, ex officio
  • Camisha Jones, Arts and Education Director, University Chaplaincy
  • Mari Lee Mifud, Chair, Department of Rhetoric and Communication Studies
  • Carl Sorensen, Associate VP for Human Resources, ex officio
  • Pam Spence, Dean of Admission, ex officio
  • Mario Villalba Ferreira, student
  • Elisabeth Wray, Adjunct Professor of History, School of Continuing Studies
  • Eric Yellin, Assistant Professor of History
  • Avrell Young, Painter, University Facilities

2007-08 Membership:

  • Louise Ball, student
  • Adrian Bitton, student
  • Kevin Crennan, student
  • Christine D'Amour, Director, Financial Operations
  • Jane Dowrick, Director, Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning
  • Nuray Grove, Director, ESL Services
  • Andrew Gurka, Area Coordinator, Richmond College
  • Glyn Hughes, Director, Office of Common Ground, chair
  • Miles Johnson, student
  • Kirk Jonas, Interim Associate Provost, ex-officio
  • Camisha Jones, Arts and Education Director, University Chaplaincy
  • MariLee Mifsud, Chair, Department of Rhetoric & Communication Studies
  • Carl Sorensen, Associate VP for Human Resources, ex officio
  • Pam Spence, Dean of Admission, ex officio
  • Mario Villalba Ferreira, student
  • Elisabeth Wray, Adjunct Professor of History, School of Continuing Studies
  • Eric Yellin, Assistant Professor of History
  • Avrell Young, Painter, University Facilities

2006-07 Membership:

  • Sam Abrash, Associate Professor of Chemistry
  • June Aprille, Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, chair
  • Louise Ball, student
  • Daphne Burt, Chaplain to the University
  • Bill Cooper, University President, ex-officio
  • Kevin Crennan, student
  • Christie D'Amour, Director of Financial Operations
  • Joanna Drell, Associate Professor of History
  • Jasmine Fryer, student
  • Jorge Haddock, Dean, Robins School of Business
  • Glyn Hughes, Director of Common Ground
  • Kirk Jonas, Director of the Richmond Research Institute
  • Carol Parish, Associate Professor of Chemistry
  • Martha Pittaway, Administrative Assistant, Provost’s Office
  • Kenneth Roberson, Gardener, University Facilities
  • Carol Sorensen, Associate Vice President for Human Resources, ex-officio

2005-06 Membership:

  • June Aprille, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, chair
  • Clint Anderson, student
  • Daphne Burt, Chaplain to the University
  • Bill Cooper, University President, ex-officio
  • John Douglass, Professor of Law
  • Joanna Drell, Associate Professor of History
  • Jasmine Fryer, student
  • Jorge Haddock, Dean, Robins School of Business
  • R. Kirk Jonas, Richmond Research Institute
  • Mehrab Malek, student
  • Carol Parish, Associate Professor of Chemistry
  • Martha Pittaway, Administrative Assistant
  • Shirley Woods, Director of Professional Development Program

Charge to 2004-05 Committee

Background:

In the fall of 2003, President Cooper and Provost Aprille announced the formation of the Common Ground Commission. The Commission was charged with developing a set of recommendations that have the potential to change institutional culture in ways that will increase diversity and more importantly make diversity truly inclusive at Richmond.

The Commission Report and Recommendations are now in hand, and the next steps will be aimed at realizing and sustaining the vision for common ground articulated by the Commission: a campus where creativity and learning benefit from a diverse workforce and student body, where the open discussion of ideas and different opinions is sought and valued, where individuals are understood and respected wholeheartedly.

One of the Commission's recommendations was to appoint an oversight Committee to coordinate an institutional action response to the recommendations, and so the Common Ground Action Committee (CGAC) is hereby created for this purpose.

Some of the Commission's recommendations are straightforward and might be acted on by administrative decisions; others require further evaluation by CGAC and input from the university community to develop a shared vision before deciding what course action, if any, should be taken.

As a reminder, the CGAC should view diversity not as a "problem" to be solved, nor simply as the moral imperative that it surely is. Instead, let us consider inclusive diversity as a source of tremendous creative energy and educational potential that will help Richmond achieve its highest goals. Those are the benefits we want to realize as an institution.

There is much to be achieved in this regard, because even when individuals have rejected racism, or sexism, or elitism, or other isms, organizational barriers are likely to exist that thwart the hiring, admission, and inclusive acceptance of individuals whose background or ideas are different from the majority.

Main Task:

By May of 2005, develop a three-year plan to enhance Richmond's ability to attract and support faculty, students, and staff who seek a dynamically diverse community in which to teach, learn, and work. The broad aims include:

Develop specific goals and strategies for increasing diversity among staff, students and faculty.
Develop a plan and process for making diversity more intentionally inclusive, integrated, and valued so as to become permanently embedded and sustainable in the mainstream of education and operations—as opposed to continuing to view diversity apart as a separate goal.
Identify assessments to monitor progress and upon which to base changes in strategy that may be necessary for long-term success.

Guidelines:

In fulfilling this charge, the group should follow these general guidelines:

  1. So as not to repeat work that has already been done, the CGAC should use the Commission's summary recommendations as the starting point for developing concrete plans and measurable goals for the three broad aims listed above.
  2. CGAC's ideas should be broadly discussed as they are being developed and thus transparent to the university community so that the ultimate goals and implementation plans will be thoroughly examined and as appropriate, gain broad support.
  3. Some aspects of the work may be delegated to subcommittees or to groups that have special purview in certain issues. For example, curricular recommendations must be processed through faculty governance.
  4. Planning should be coordinated and leveraged as appropriate with other initiatives, such as The Center for Civic Engagement, the Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience, and with strategic planning that is underway in some units (Admissions, Financial Aid, Merit Scholarship Programs, International Education, SACS accreditation, to name a few).
  5. Continue to investigate what other institutions and organizations have attempted and accomplished in this area, to glean good ideas, to discover what their efforts may have overlooked, and to anticipate pitfalls. Strive for a plan with the potential to become a national model.
  6. Appreciate and where possible build on what has already been done at Richmond in earlier initiatives of this kind, such as the results of the 1993 Commission on Diversity and the many programs in place that already address various dimensions of diversity. Determine which existing activities inform and support our new goals, and assess whether consolidation of some might help to focus energy and resources.

2004-05 Membership:

  • Clinton Anderson, student
  • June Aprille, Provost, chair
  • Lori Bailey, student
  • Steve Bisese – Richmond College
  • Beverly Bradshaw – Modlin Center for the Arts
  • John Douglass – School of Law
  • Tanice Fenner – Printing Services
  • Gill Hickman – Jepson School of Leadership Studies
  • Amy Howard – Center for Civic Engagement
  • Kimberlye Joyce – Education Department, A&S
  • Mehrab Malek, student

  • Jermaine Massenburg – Custodial Services
  • Herb Peterson – Business & Finance
  • Steve RiCharde – Office of Institutional Research, Assessment & Planning
  • Steve Wilborn – Office of Admission
  • Shirley Woods – Robins School of Business
  • Administrative support provided by Martha Pittaway, Provost’s Office