Task Force Group Explores Diversity Training Model

Recent surveys of employees and students on the campuses of MCCCD show overwhelming support for activities that foster diversity awareness, but it is not often clear how the best results can be obtained when it comes to training opportunities for employees or outcomes in the classroom. Moreover, given the rich development of the diversity movement in recent years, and the innovative approaches of experts in the field such as Drs. Milton and Janet Bennett of the Intercultural Communication Institute, it seems counterproductive to not take a look at what is already available and tested elsewhere and see if it can be adapted effectively to our district culture. The proverbial question arises, “Why reinvent the wheel?”

It was this frame of thinking that found expression in a request put out last spring by Dr. Patricia Honzay, Director of Employee and Organizational Development at the District Office, for Diversity Advisory Council members and others to participate in a model diversity training program developed by Richland Community College in Dallas, Texas. This 2 ½ day training, which took place between August 11th and 13th, exposed the 23 MCCCD volunteers from management and faculty positions to the mandatory diversity training developed at Richland. The training exploration was supported by council subteam facilitators, Ms. Teresa Toney, Manager Maricopa Government/Ombuds Services, and Dr. Joseph Pearson, Director of the Extended Campus at Mesa Community College as part of an initiative to address workplace diversity.

While the whole issue of diversity is one that raises skeptical eyebrows from some quarters, facilitator and sociology instructor Kay Coder brought some striking facts to bear on the importance of diversity training. Statistically, a significant number of employees get fired from positions for what boils down to a lack of intercommunication skills. Moreover, among Fortune 500 companies, studies show that the most successful are those that offer diversity training.

Part of the problem is that diversity is too often taken to mean only ethnic awareness, and while this is a big part of the initiative, it clearly is not the only one. An effective training then needs to address, as Richland’s model did, aspects such as value systems, communication styles, invisible privilege, attitudes towards people with disabilities and recognizing commonalities, as well as intercultural communication along the lines of the Bennett model.

Perhaps the most important part of the 3-day event was the last afternoon when the volunteers had a chance to give their opinions on the most useful elements of the training for MCCCD. A show of hands showed universal support for some version of this training with many agreeing that it should be mandatory and tied in with new employee training. There were, however, some reservations as to the inclusion of the Bennetts’ intercultural communication model, since many employees have already been exposed to it. And Others questioned whether or not certain elements of the training were not already being delivered through MCCCD’s own Employee and Organizational Learning Team and Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction trainings. These are issues that will need to be addressed once the Diversity Advisory Council resumes its regular meetings for 2003/2004. Overall though, Richland’s model of diversity training presented a rare opportunity for Maricopans to experience a well-conceived, comprehensive, imaginative and modifiable model for our district that was also just plain fun to participate in. Our thanks go out to Kay Coder and Dr. Honzay for the enlightening experience, and to the Renewal committee who endorsed the proposal and approved the funding for this event.