The following is a message I sent to faculty and staff in my department. I don't know why. It just seemed appropriate.
After last night (or this morning), I thought I would share with you something I wrote last week when asked for my views on the role of diversity at the university:
"Excellence cannot be achieved without diversity of thought. Diversity is not an objective; it is a culture. Diversity does not end with hiring. Diversity must permeate student recruitment, teaching approaches and research topics. With increasing social, political and economic gaps evident to the casual observer, the University provides a unique opportunity, and perhaps obligation, to use education to foster dialogue, develop solutions and begin to bridge the gaps."
Over the coming weeks, sensitivities may be high among students. I encourage you to engage students in dialogue as you feel appropriate, referring students to University resources for help if they feel they need it, discouraging intolerance, and emphasizing the acceptance of diversity of thought and the role objective applied economic analysis can play in informed debate.
Our role as educators is not to tell students who is right and who is wrong; our job is to equip students with the education and tools necessary to engage in informed, tolerant, productive debate.
