UNDER-REPRESENTED MINORITY STUDENTS 8 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 EDUCATION Enterting GPAs per Year ce Scores per Year EDUCATION Under-Represented Minority Students EDUCATION Enrollment in Professional and Graduate Programs warded Applicants Acceptances Matriculants Yohanna Emun-Rowaan Building a More Diverse Student Population In a culture where the word “diversity” gets bandied about a lot, SUNY Optometry is certain of one thing: Diversity is not enough. Without a sense of inclusion, diversity is simply people of different backgrounds being in the same space, often without an exchange of ideas or interests. “We want to make sure that students, faculty and staff feel that this is a community where they can thrive and succeed,” says vice president for student affairs Dr. Guilherme Albieri about what the College hopes to achieve after it builds a diverse population. The College created the Diversity and Inclusion Master Plan to address the SUNY system’s goal of becoming the most diverse university system in the country. The first section of the two-part study looks at the race and ethnicity of the College’s student body, faculty, staff and administration—comparing the stats to other optometry schools and health professions. While the findings showed that there is a lower percentage of students of color in optometry than other health professions (prompting the College to set a five-year goal to shift enrollment demographics), the Student Climate Survey indicated that there is actually a high degree of inclusion and satisfaction amongst the student body. Says Dr. Albieri, “Maintaining and building upon the vitality of current programs that boost engagement and morale is critical.” There is a four-prong approach underway to increase diversity and inclusion at the College. The components are the Explore Campaign (designed to encourage prospective students to investigate the field of optometry), the IDEA initiative (focused on preparing high school students to become successful applicants to the College), targeted recruitment (focused on schools that serve students of color) and the CSTEP program (aimed at increasing representation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields).
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