FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

of the

STANDING COMMITTEE ON DIVERSITY IN PLANNING EDUCATION

(formerly The Committee on the Representation of Women

and Persons of Color in Planning Education)

Submitted to

ACSP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

on

October 28, 1993

INTRODUCTION

At the Fall 1989 Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), President Carl Patton created ACSP’s first standing committee, The Committee on the Representation of Women and Persons of Color in Planning Education. Membership in the committee was announced shortly after the meeting. The committee began under the leadership of Marsha Ritzdorf and Catherine Ross; recently Catherine Ross and Cheryl Contant have served as co-chairs. In this report, we present our accomplishments and activities over the past year, our plans for the next year, and our budgetary needs for the next fiscal year.

When we were formed we were charged to examine issues surrounding efforts to increase the representation of women and minorities within the organization, member institutions, and the profession. Specifically, our committee was asked to undertake the following activities:

• Develop a strategy for conducting ongoing assessments of the status of women and minorities in member institutions,

• Identify strategies and programs to improve the recruitment, retention, and expansion of the number of women and minorities within the ACSP organization and member institutions,

• Develop a position statement that affirms the importance of diversity in planning education and ACSP's commitment to the principles of affirmative action within the organization and member institutions,

• Identify mechanisms to create an organizational climate within ACSP and member schools that is favorable and encourages the participation of minorities and women, and

• Suggest methods that encourage the use of ACSP as a forum for the exchange of information on curriculum, recruitment, and retention.

The present membership of committee consists of: Catherine Ross (co-chair), Georgia Institute of Technology; Cheryl Contant (co-chair), University of Iowa; Sylvia White, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Bill Siembieda, University of New Mexico; Gene Grigsby, University of California-Los Angeles; and Peter Fisher, University of Iowa. Catherine Ross will be stepping down as co-chair at the end of the ACSP meeting when she begins her term as ACSP President. All appointments to the committee have been made by the ACSP president, and terms of membership are indefinite.

The committee will be having a face-to-face working meeting during the ACSP conference in Philadelphia to discuss upcoming activities, future direction of the committee, and membership in and leadership of the committee.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE

Over the past year, the Committee has been involved in three activities: (1) helping to organize and sponsor a mini-conference on the new PAB standards on diversity, (2) aiding in the establishments of a mentoring network between tenured and untenured women faculty, and (3) working with other groups within ACSP and elsewhere on issues central to our mission. Each of these efforts is described briefly below.

Mini-Conference on "The PAB Standards on Diversity: A Framework for Change"

The Faculty Women's Interest Group (FWIG) is sponsoring a mini-conference to proceed the annual ACSP conference on October 28, 1993. Conference organizers include Sandra Rosenbloom, Ellen Pader, Ana Maria Whitaker, and Sylvia White and Cheryl Contant of our Committee. The conference grew out of a series of discussions held at FWIG meetings where members expressed interest in holding a forum to assist planning programs in beginning to meet the new PAB standards on diversity.

The conference focuses on examining the new standards; enhancing the recruitment and retention of a diverse student body and faculty; developing alternative models of success that include multiple roles; and incorporating diversity issues in methods, land use, and site planning curricula. Based on the success of last year's mini-conference, we anticipate a lively and valuable dialogue on issues important to all planning programs.

Faculty Women's Mentoring Network

Our committee has been working with members of the Faculty Women's Interest Group in establishing a mentoring network between tenured and untenured faculty women. Organizers of the network are Ellen Pader of the University of Massachusetts and Cheryl Contant of the University of Iowa. Letters describing the establishment of the network were sent to all members of FWIG. We received a surprisingly good initial response; 23 tenured faculty women and 11 untenured women returned information sheets and expressed an interest in participating in the network.

Based on the information we have received, we have matched up an untenured woman with a "similar" tenured woman mentor. Each woman has been notified of the match and encouraged to get together during the Annual Conference. Just exactly what happens at that point is really up to the pair of women. We hope that the mentor will introduce the untenured woman to colleagues and associates; provide ongoing contact and a friendly ear; and perhaps help the mentee by reviewing manuscripts, providing publishing advice, etc. If the initial match doesn't work, we'll try again.

This mentoring network is frankly an experiment. If it is successful, it could become a useful service to untenured women who may feel isolated or can't connect with existing colleagues or associates. This style of network also has the potential to be transferred to other interested groups such as faculty of color, women graduate students, or graduate students of color.

Coordination and Contact with Other Planning Organizations

Since its inception, the committee recognized that it is not the only organization in planning interested in improving the representation of women and persons of color in education and in practice. During this past year, we have been actively promoting cooperative efforts with many of these other groups. As discussed earlier, our committee worked closely with the Faculty Women's Interest Group in organizing the mini-conference on the new PAB standards. Several members of our committee are active participants in FWIG and have been involved in coordinating the activities of the two groups.

In addition, the Planning and Women Division of the American Planning Association has been pursuing several initiatives regarding the status of women in planning practice. The president of the division, Sylvia White, is a member of our committee and has been working closely with the APA Task Force. She will continue to work in this liaison role with this APA Division and with other APA organizations.

We also have been working closely with several other ACSP committees and commissions including the Undergraduate committee, the Ph.D. commission, and the Database committee. We are trying to stay current on the activities of these groups and assist in the implementation of their recommendations, when appropriate.

PLANS FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR

We anticipate at least three major areas for committee activity for the upcoming year: (1) assisting in the development of curriculum guidance relating to the new PAB diversity standards, (2) continuing coordination with other bodies in ACSP (and elsewhere) in collecting and interpreting information and trends on diversity issues, and (3) enhancing the membership of the Committee. We are also continuing to publicize our committee work and involvement in various activities. For example, two members of the committee (Sylvia White and Gene Grigsby) prepared an article for the Update on our committee's activities, membership, and goals. This article not only described our committee to the ACSP audience, but was used as a call for action among the planning education community to pursue diversity issues more aggressively.

We intend to work closely with FWIG after this year's mini-conference in producing documents or materials that provide guidance and assistance to planning educators and ACSP member schools in incorporating issues of diversity in their curriculum. We hope to collect, assemble, and disseminate information on diversity issues in the classroom. This could be done by asking planning educators to submit syllabi, exercises, and classroom activities that positively incorporate gender and ethnicity issues in their courses. We hope to compile these materials and produce a synopsis of them for distribution.

A second area for committee activity is to continue to work with other ACSP, APA, and associated organizations interested in promoting diversity in planning education and the profession. Specifically, we will continue to work with the ACSP Database committee, the editors of the Guides to Planning Education, APA's divisions for women and persons of color, and the PAB on efforts to create an accurate and useful data bank of characteristics of ACSP schools, faculty, student body, and members of the professions. Our committee is particularly interested in obtaining data to monitor trends in the number and rank of women and persons of color in student enrollment and faculty appointments. We are also interested in some of the more detailed tracking information that would be necessary to examine individuals' advancement through planning education, into faculty positions or the profession. A combined effort of our committee, the database committee, the PAB, and the editors of the Guides should avoid duplication and permit complete information to be collected from all member schools.

A final area for concentrated effort this year will be in enhancing the membership of the Committee. Over the past two or three years, our membership has decreased as individuals have moved off the committee. We would like to work with the ACSP President in identifying interested, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic new members for appointment to the Committee. We will be soliciting input from the Executive Committee and attendees of the Annual Conference.

BUDGETARY NEEDS

To accomplish the various activities we have planned for this upcoming year and to continue to develop strategies for committee action, we will need a limited amount of support from ACSP. The following indicates our budget needs for fiscal year 1994-1995; we will be making a formal budget request at the Executive Committee meeting at APA in the spring.

As in the past year, we feel we will need to have three conference call meetings over the course of the fiscal year to discuss subcommittee activities, establish committee priorities, and share important news. We will also need a limited amount of resources for committee business such as postage, xeroxing, and telephone. These resources will supplement the generous contributions of the committee members' schools who contribute staff time and other supplies for committee business.

Breakdown for our anticipated resource needs are as follows.

Committee conference calls (3 at $250 per call) $750.00

Postage, xeroxing, telephone, reports 250.00

TOTAL BUDGET NEEDS $1,000.00