Graduate students call for increased diversity at IU

The Graduate Professional Student Organization formally called for IU to introduce more diversity awareness and education efforts when it passed a new resolution during its final meeting of the semester.

In addition to more awareness efforts and education, the Inclusive Student Body Resolution calls for IU to examine its current efforts to foster greater diversity.

“This resolution recognizes that the University has several important mechanisms and programs in place to address diversity issues and to build an inclusive environment for students,” GPSO President Brady Harman said.

The GPSO offered four ways IU could improve these issues in the resolution.
It encourages IU to develop mandatory diversity and inclusion training for all students, faculty and staff at IU.

The organization also recommends IU release incident summaries at the end of each semester, which would include the offense, the group targeted by the offense and the action taken by the school.

IU should monitor how effective any current or developing diversity initiatives on campus have been to identify and problems and create solutions, according to the resolution.

It also urges increased student awareness about organizations and resources in place on campus, such as Incident Teams and IU Counseling and Psychological Services, for students or faculty to use if they experience any threat to their emotional, mental or physical safety on campus.

Harman said this resolution was a response to some diversity issues on campus this year, particularly the actions of some white supremacist student groups on
campus.  

“But we’d rather focus on proactive ways to address issues of discrimination, rather than give any more name recognition to these types of groups,” Harman said.

Though this was the last GPSO assembly meeting of this year. Harman will serve as president again next year.

He said his goals for next year include increasing inclusiveness and collaboration by surveying more students and by increasing the number of campus.

“GPSO has maintained and increased academic support and community building initiatives,” Harman said. “We have also refocused our organization on advocacy efforts.

“We have passed more legislation this year than in the last four years combined. This has all been due to an active and involved group of representatives and officers.”