November 17, 2017

Page 1

THE GATEPOST Framingham State’s independent student newspaper

Volume 86 • Issue 10

FSUgatepost.com

November 17, 2017

Corey McFeeley / THE GATEPOST “A Piece of My Heart” will be performed in DPAC through Saturday.

News TITLE IX pg. 4 ELEVATOR UPDATE pg. 6

Opinions

FSU holds unity workshop

Faculty diversity rises to 19.8 percent

By Jillian Poland News Editor

By Tessa Jillson Asst. Arts & Features

The University hosted a Unity Workshop for FSU community members on Nov. 13 in response to the recent hate crimes on campus. “DRY CAMPUS” pg. 8 The workshop was intended to “empower” the comBE THE ANGRY FAN pg. 9 munity and start conversations about solutions, said Millie González, interim chief officer of diversity, inclusion and community engagement. González sent out emails to the entire campus comArts & Features munity containing a link to register for the workshop and received 47 responses. “Disturbingly,” of those responses, 21 were anonymous replies that were racist and STAGE READING pg. 10 anti-Semitic, said González. Those responses have been REPUTATION REVIEW pg. 11 sent to FSUPD for investigation. Approximately 55 people attended the workshop. Of the attendees, five were students, including two Gatepost staff members covering the event. At the meeting, González introduced Barbara Holland, founder and CEO of BreakThrough Partners, a consulting firm focused on inclusion, diversity and cultural competence. Holland will be providing trainings for the campus community and offering recommendations for improving campus culture around diversity and inclusion. Amanda Martin / THE GATEPOST Dan Levinson from the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights organization that fights anti-Semitism and other forms of hate, also introduced himself at the event. Sports He said, “From everything I’ve seen, it certainly seems like what your school and what your community is doing WOMEN’S BASKETBALL OPENS is amazing. I wish, frankly, that every college community SEASON pg 17 and every university where there was an incident could FOOTBALL QUALIFIES FOR BOWL respond like this.” HAME pg. 19

See UNITY WORKSHOP page 3

Framingham State University plans to increase the percentage of full-time faculty members from diverse backgrounds to 21 percent by 2020 as part of its new strategic plan, said Kim Dexter, director of equal oppurtunity, Title IX and ADA compliance. This year, 19.8 percent of full-time faculty are from diverse backgrounds. The FSU strategic plan was initiated to enhance learning and leadership on campus, increase faculty, staff and student diversity and create a diverse, inclusive work environment, according to the Framingham State website. The Division of Inclusive Excellence and human resources updates the University’s strategic plan every five years to set new baseline goals. Susan Dargan, dean of social and behavioral sciences, said, “Twelve years ago, I don’t think diversity was as big a part of the strategic plan as it is now. I think hiring President Cevallos was a great thing because he’s committed to diversity and inclusion and he knows it’s a priority.” Dexter said the 2012-17 strategic plan set a goal of 12 percent, which has been exceeded. Linda Vaden-Goad, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said the University is pretty close to the 2020 strategic baseline already, “so, we probably could raise that and will want to” in the future. FSU’s percentile ranking for full-time faculty from diverse backgrounds is on par with other state Universities. The Framingham State 2016-2017 common data set recognized 37 out of 198 full-time faculty members as members of minority groups. The percent of full-time

See FACULTY DIVERSITY page 3 INSIDE: OP/ED 8 • ARTS & FEATURES 10 • SPORTS 14


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November 17, 2017 by The Gatepost - Issuu