Hate Crime Response Protocols and Prevention Programming

In 1998, the President's Commission on Ethnic Minority Issues and the Office of the Special Assistant to the President partnered with ODI to develop and implement a campus-wide information and education campaign on the prevention of Race, Religious, Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, and Disability (RRESD) related harassment and intimidation.

In 2000 and again in 2001, ODI hosted and co-sponsored the State of Maryland's second and third annual Hate Crimes Summit. Coordinated through the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development and the National Center for Dispute Settlement, with additional support from fourteen state and national conflict resolution entities, the Summit focuses on providing participants with the latest information on alternative dispute resolution. The Summit attracted over 300 attendees both years.

Building on the RRESD campaign and the Hate Crimes Summit, during the Spring semester of 2000, the President charged the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs to undertake a "Review of the University of Maryland's Response to Incidents of Hate." Coordinated by the Executive Assistant to the Vice President Student Affairs and Director of Planning and Research, the Review identified the following six priorities in responding to incidents of hate: tending to the needs of victims; tending to the campus community; finding and disciplining perpetrators; providing sufficient avenues for reporting hate bias incidents; articulating administrative roles and responsibilities; and, improving communication with the administration. Based on the findings of the Review, the campus has improved its efforts in each of these six priority areas and is attentive to their continuous enhancement.

The Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs coordinates Maryland's response to incidents of hate in collaboration with numerous campus entities, including ODI. Through our Diversity Facilitation program, ODI provides prevention-focused education and training on hate crime in partnership with the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, the Police Department, the Department of Resident Life, and Project NEThics.

For more information, please contact the Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of Planning and Research at 301.314.8436. Here are some useful numbers:

• For emergency hate crime reporting call 911, or the University of Maryland Police Department at 301. 405. 3555
• The campus hate incident phone line: 301.314.6000
• Resident Life staff at the service desk in each resident hall
• Internet related incidents of hate, contact Project NEThics at 301.405.8787, or by email.

Integrating Diversity into New Student Orientation

Maryland has a long-standing tradition of integrating diversity into the various vehicles through which new students are oriented to campus life. ODI distributes information about diversity programming on campus, and also facilitates a variety of diversity-related activities during campus-wide orientation events. More recently, in response to the President's Diversity Panel report, a number of campus entities, including ODI, have examined ways in which diversity can be more thoroughly integrated into new student orientation via campus promotional materials, tours, acceptance letters, registration applications, and special curricular and co-curricular orientation programming.

New student orientation is coordinated by the Orientation Office. The Integrating Diversity into New Student Orientation initiative is coordinated by the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Studies.

Diversity in UNIV 100/101

UNIV 100/101, The Student in the University, is the first-year student orientation seminar into which most incoming students enroll as a part of a semester long orientation to higher education in general, and to Maryland in particular. A diversity component has always been a part of the UNIV 100/101 curriculum. More recently, in response to the President's Diversity Panel report, a number of campus entities including ODI have examined the issue of integrating diversity into the curriculum in a more holistic way.

The UNIV 100/101 course is coordinated by the Orientation Office, and the initiative is coordinated by the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Studies.

Expanding Diversity Core Curricula

Maryland's CORE Human Cultural Diversity Curricula is a component of its CORE Liberal Arts and Sciences Studies Program or undergraduate general education requirements. The Human Cultural Diversity Curricula is designed to give students the chance to examine their ideas and values in the light of an unfamiliar social or intellectual context; to heighten students' appreciation of difference; to increase students' ability to learn from people, culture, ideas, and art forms different from those each knows best; and, to acquaint students with the varied cultures that have been a part of the American heritage.

Human Cultural Diversity courses focus on the history, status, treatment, and/or accomplishments of women or minority groups and subcultures; on non-Western culture; and, on concepts and implications of diversity. A number of campus entities, including the ODI, have examined ways to expand the curricula in terms of the credits allocated to it as well as the intellectual rigor of the content and scholarship.

The CORE Liberal Arts and Sciences Studies Program is coordinated by the CORE Planning and Implementation Office, and the initiative is coordinated by the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Studies.