Q&A

Celebrating Diversity

A trustee leads a new advisory group to improve the University’s communication with minority alumni. Interview by Scott Hauser

Price

This fall’s Meliora Weekend will feature a series of events devoted to “Celebrating Diversity,” including the first-ever reunion geared toward all alumni from underrepresented minority groups.

The events, which take place in conjunction with other programming in the College’s annual three-day celebration, October 21 through October 23, have been organized by the Multicultural Alumni Advisory Council, a new group of more than 30 alumni from around the country who are working to connect alumni to each other and to College life through activities such as alumni admissions and career networks, programs, communication efforts, and fundraising.

Trustee Francis Price ’74, ’75S (MBA) the CEO of Q3 Industries, who organized and chairs the council, discusses the group’s goals.

What are your hopes for the council?

We hope the council will act as an umbrella organization to help the University administration get a much better feel for what ethnic minorities and underrepresented people think about the institution and the ways that it works for them. The idea is that if people from affected groups get a chance to express their values, their hopes, and their aspirations—and have the institution understand that—then clearly the institution would be in a better position to serve those communities.

Has that not been happening?

I would be the first to raise my hand to tell you that there was not a better place for me to get an education given my history and my experience at the University, but the fabric of the institution doesn’t really reflect the fabric of society in the 21st century. It’s not reflected in the administration, and it’s not reflected in the faculty. Looking forward, it’s very important for the institution to reflect the society that the students are going to work in.

How’s the council organized?

There’s an executive committee of five or six trustees plus a few other distinguished alumni, and there’s a larger committee of 35 or so alumni whose main function this year has been to help plan the multicultural emphasis of this fall’s Meliora Weekend. This will be the first time that we will reach out to all minority alumni—black, Hispanic, and Asian—to create special programming to appeal to that group.

What input will the council have in the University’s decision making?

We’re advisory and interpretative. The governance of the University falls to the Board of Trustees, and although the executive committee that I put together has five or six trustees, the council won’t make policy for the institution. And it wasn’t intended to do that. It’s strictly advisory.

We’re focusing on creating a voice for the University’s multicultural network and on having the University hear that voice.

For more about the Multicultural Alumni Advisory Council, contact Kelly Clark ’85, ’86 (Mas), associate director of alumni relations for multicultural services, at (800) 333-0175; kclark (at) alumni (dot) rochester (dot) edu.