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Chapter 7 Destination Diversity and Desegregation in the 2000s One of the things Raising the Bar stresses is the importance of diversity on campus, the university’s top institutional goal. This means creating a campus community that mirrors not just our state, but our country as a whole. We’re striving to enrich our learning environment by increasing the diversity of our students, our faculty and our staff. By doing so, we’re creating that critical exchange of viewpoints, opinions and beliefs that foster innovation and understanding. —John White Chancellor John White made the remarks above during one of his annual State of the University addresses in 2007.1 As was the norm during his ten-year tenure, White emphasized the importance of diversity, referring to it as the institution’s “top institutional priority.” For White, enhancing the diversity of the campus encouraged “enlightened conversation” and pushed the university toward “inclusive (educational) excellence.”2 Based upon these public statements in support of diversity, White took steps to expand opportunities for African Americans at the university. In 1999, White named Dr. Johnetta Cross Brazzell as the vice chancellor of student affairs, making her the first African American to permanently hold that title in the university’s history. In 2002, White supported the appointment of Dr. Carolyn Allen as the dean of the library. Four years later, the White administration named Cynthia Nance as the dean of the School of Law. Both Allen and Nance were the first African Americans to rise to the level of dean in each of those administrative units.3 White sought to demonstrate his support for African Americans and diversity in other ways. In 2002, White created a Diversity Task Force with the charge of creating a diversity plan for the institution. The group conducted a number of campus climate surveys and created a document with objectives and benchmarks for furthering diversity over a three-year period.4 In 2005, the university created the office of the chief diversity officer and hired Carmen Coustaut, an African American woman, to head it. 5 In 2006, White authorized additional funding to go toward expanding the African American Studies Program in the Fulbright College. The extra funding led to dramatic increases in both the courses offered that focused on the black experience and in the students that formally aligned with the program. Also in 2006, the university established the Silas Hunt Awards to recognize the contributions of African American students, faculty, and staff to furthering the cause of inclusion on the Fayetteville campus.6 The growth of the African American student and faculty numbers during a portion of the White years suggests that more blacks (at least for a time) saw the university as a more inclusive campus. In the fall of 2000, 965 African American students were enrolled. By the fall 271 2002, this number had grown to 1,022.7 Black teaching faculty witnessed a similar increase, going from 3.1 percent of the total instructional faculty on the campus in 2000 to 3.9 percent in 2002.8 Though significant, these changes did not suggest that race had ceased being a potentially explosive issue at the university. The dismissal of the men’s basketball coach, Nolan Richardson, revealed this fact. In March 2002, the university fired Richardson for comments that he had made during a press conference. During the press conference, Richardson had complained that he was being treated unfairly because he was black, and he also asserted that the university could buy out his contract if it was dissatisfied with him. In December of that same year, Richardson sued the university, alleging racial discrimination.9 The trial lasted for several months, and although Richardson ultimately lost his case, the university’s diversity image was severely sullied. Nowhere was the negative impact of the Richardson case best demonstrated than the enrollment of African American students. In the fall 2003, the black student numbers fell from an all-time high of 1,022 to 1,005. Just one year later that number had further declined to 981, despite the fact that overall student numbers had increased. In terms of percentages in a period of three years, the African American student population had gone from 6.37 percent in 2002 to 5.68 percent in 2006. This percentage fell further in 2006 to 5.28 percent.10 The university’s actions to effectively desegregate continue. Today, several of the colleges have written diversity plans that highlight the need to...

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