By Charles Roberts

A campus-formed committee is working to make Buffalo State College a more diverse place to be.

The Presidents Council on Equity and Campus Diversity addresses discrimination, harassment and campus-climate issues. Four years ago, the council conducted a survey amongst BSC faculty and staff to find out how the campus climate could be enriched. www.buffalostate.edu/offices/equity

“Questions of gender, race, religion and sexual orientation and how they affected the campus were asked in hopes of making a hospitable climate for all,” said Gail Maloney, assistant director of athletics and president’s council chairperson.

The council is now in the process of working on a five-year plan to keep the campus a safe, diverse place. One of the plan’s agendas is that more professors and students take diversity-training courses.

“Right now there are a number of faculty and staff and students who take diversity training and promote equity,” said Michelle Brown Douglas, assistant director, campus equity and diversity. By taking these training courses, faculty and students alike take on the opportunity to understand other ethnicities, age groups, genders and religions.

Through the use of mini-grants, the committee works with organizations on campus to bring speakers and other functions such as plays that promote diversity to BSC. Most recently was the speech delivered by Coretta Scott King in February. King, the wife of late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a world renowned speaker who promotes peace and racial diversity.

The council meets once a month to discuss the current discrimination, harassment and campus-climate issues on hand. It was formally created seven years ago; however it is derived from the Affirmative Action Committee that worked on campus in the 1970s.