Welcome to the home page of the Office for Diversity & African American Affairs!

201 Holladay Hall
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday - Friday

Main: 919-515-3607
Fax: 919-515-3750
TTY: 919-515-9617

Campus Box 7527
Raleigh, NC 27695-7527

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The Vice Provost for Diversity and African American Affairs has the primary responsibility of forging a shared vision concerning the recruitment, retention, and graduation of a diverse student body. The position is the focal point in the office of the Provost for advocating, assisting, encouraging, evaluating, and monitoring African American undergraduate and graduate student success. The Vice Provost facilitates communication about diversity as being at the core of the University's academic mission.

NC State has a commitment to excellence in a comprehensive range of academic disciplines that foster academic maturation and inclusion of all students and facilitating a learning environment that is conducive for a diverse population of students to succeed.

NC State embraces diversity as essential for effective participation in the global community. Achieving diversity requires the active cooperation and participation of all.

• Diversity and the Global Research -Extension University (Chancellor James L. Oblinger)
• African American Cultural Center
• Diversity Advisory Committee

Definition

Diversity is an inclusive collection of individuals and groups who bring varied human characteristics, backgrounds, interests and points of view to enrich the university community.

Such a community will:

• enhance open access and opportunity for all and attract a diverse population;
• enrich the educational experience and promote personal growth;
• foster mutual respect and an appreciation of differences and promote cross-cultural understanding;
• prepare leaders for a competitive global community.

Why does NCSU have an Office for Diversity and African American Affairs?

The purpose of the Office for Diversity and African American Affairs (DAAA) is to help the University accomplish its academic mission and achieve its goal of building a diverse and inclusive campus community.  DAAA seeks to achieve its purpose by developing and implementing a comprehensive and integrated approach to creating a diverse and inclusive campus community.  The office also advocates for, assists with, encourages, evaluates and monitors the University’s efforts to recruit, retain, and graduate students from historically underrepresented groups.   The African American Cultural Center (AACC) is a unit that reports directly to the vice provost for diversity and African American Affairs. 

What We Do And Why we Do It:  The Role of the OVPDAAA

Depicted below is a framework for diversity at NC State University.  It depicts what the Office for Diversity and African American Affairs does to help create a diverse and inclusive campus community.

As depicted in the framework, the OVPDAAA does four things.  First, we promote programs and activities to help people feel welcomed, valued and respected on our campus.  This is what is referred to as valuing differences.  Individuals who feel welcomed, valued and respected and who feel good about themselves and who they are (self-awareness), are much better able to interact effectively with others who are different (build an inclusive community).  The second major focus of the office is promoting effective diversity interaction.  To achieve this objective the OVPDAAA partners with other campus units, faculty, staff and student groups to promote programs and events that bring people who are different together to interact.  The third major component of the framework and a critical role of the OVPDAAA is diversity education. 

Both valuing difference and effective interaction are enhanced by increased knowledge and understanding of other cultures, religions, sexual orientations etc.  Finally, the fourth component of the framework requires that the OVPDAAA helps shape the demographic diversity on campus to achieve a critical mass.  This objective requires that the OVPDAAA conduct programs and activities that recruit, retain, and promote students, faculty and staff of historically underepresented groups. 

A Philosophy of Human Nature and How Diversity Works

Consistent with this framework is a philosophy of how diversity works that is grounded in three fundamental principles of human nature:

1.  Humans have a need to be valued, respected, and assured that they are welcomed.
     To live, learn, and interact successfully in a diverse community, individuals must
     be self-confident, self-aware, and proud of who they are and what they have
     accomplished.  Therefore, one important focus of diversity at NC State is on
     valuing, nurturing, and celebrating the broad range of differences in the human
     experience.

2.  All the benefits and all the challenges of human diversity result from the
     interaction between people who bring different worldviews and life experiences
     to the conversation.  Consequently, a second major focus of diversity at NC State
     is on promoting effective interaction between and among the diverse people on our
     campus.

3.  Key to both valuing diversity and promoting effective interaction between people
     are the concepts of critical mass (representation in sufficient numbers to feel
     valued and not the sole representative of a race or culture) and cultural
     competency (having knowledge about diverse groups and knowing how to interact
     effectively with diverse others).  Therefore, demographic diversity and diversity
     education are essential components of the framework for diversity at NC State
     University.

Our Approach to Promoting Diversity on Campus

This framework for diversity at NC State University requires an approach to promoting diversity (the work of OVPDAAA) that is comprised of three major components.  First, the OVPDAAA will place more emphasis on anticipating, responding to, and serving the diversity needs of people on campus, rather than emphasizing the performance of a set of narrowly pre-defined functions or tasks.  Second, the OVPDAAA must emphasize its role as a partner, facilitator, and collaborator for promoting the diversity needs of the campus, rather than serving as the central campus expert or implementer of campus diversity policy and programs.  This second component is linked to the belief that as diversity managers we are servant-leaders.  Inherent in the concept of servant-leader is the idea that the benefits and challenges of diversity results from the interactions between people and that people know what their diversity needs are and how best to meet them.  As servant-leaders our job in the OVPDAAAis to anticipate and respond to these needs effectively and in a timely manner.   The third component of this approach to the work of of office is the idea that diversity must be integrated into the fabric of campus life.  Diversity is not and should not be an add-on or an ancillary component of the academic mission.  Diversity is central to the academic mission and to our university vision- Innovation in Action.  The diversity of ideas and worldviews that result and emerge from the broad range of human experiences (e.g. racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.) inform our intellectual, disciplinary and creative efforts.  Thus, diversity is central to our academic mission and this office must approach diversity as an integral aspect of university life.

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Updated on 10/28/03 by EMS

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