Representatives of the Committee for the Promotion of Tolerance and Diversity, which is working to develop the creed, solicited input from the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at its Jan. 14 meeting.

Jackie Bascom, a student in the Graduate School of Education, and Donna Rice, associate vice president for student affairs, told committee members it was important they get comments from faculty, staff and students "so people feel this is something they can buy into, not just something to hang on a wall."

"I think this is really an important document to have," Bascom said. "It's not just the President's Office saying, 'This is how you should act on campus.' It's students, faculty, staff, administrators...saying, 'It's important for us to have a community where we value diversity, where we won't tolerate racial acts or intolerance....It would be presumptuous for us to say, 'Here's a creed, now just sign off on it.'"

Bascom noted that there have been problems recently with racial graffiti on campus and acts of homophobia in the dorms. "There is intolerance in every community, but we would like to come together as UB and say, 'We're not going to tolerate this.'"

She circulated to senators copies of a model of a creed developed by the diversity committee using examples from other campuses, calling it "a starting point," and asked faculty members for categories they feel should be addressed.

Rice asked FSEC members if they would be willing to take into their classrooms a series of questions to elicit discussion on the development of a campus diversity creed.

Powhatan Wooldridge, associate professor of nursing, agreed with "the spirit" of the creed, but said he feared a stated policy on diversity "will interfere with serious debate on issues."

Boris Albini, professor of microbiology, said he supported a diversity statement that discussed the issue "in general terms, rather than in lists of what is not allowed."

Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, added that freedom of speech "is an important part of the academy," and joked that members "have a right to be stupid if they wish to be."

Sherri Wallace, assistant professor of planning, wondered how the diversity committee, once a creed was developed, would evaluate its success. "If you don't have a way to measure whether or not we are being diverse, then I'm wondering what is the use of it?" she asked.

Bascom said the success of a creed could be measured in the attitudes of students, noting that student attitudes changed at the University of Rhode Island, where she had received her undergraduate degree, after a general diversity creed was implemented. "Things did change. It wasn't overnight, but the campus climate has definitely changed there," she said