Open Letter to the President

September 30, 2011

Dr. Wallace Loh, UMD President

University of Maryland

1101 Main Administration Building

College Park, MD 20742

Dear Dr. Loh:

First, allow us to thank you and others in your administration for your efforts to investigate and address issues that were brought to your attention by University of Maryland staff.  While the Working Group’s report focused on Facilities Management, we know from our dealings and conversations that there are issues across all classifications of employees at the University.  And while these may not be considered “widespread toxic workplaces” by the administration’s estimation, every issue and concern of UM employees should be adequately addressed. Our 56-page report and countless interactions with a wide range of campus employees, most of whom are Black and Latino women, point to irrefutable evidence that these human rights issues and these toxic workplace environments are “widespread” throughout our campus.

While we applaud the effort made in creating a report and concur with several of the recommendations of the HR Working Group, we forward this letter to you that BFSA had prepared prior to the reports publication. The BFSA had identified some of the same recommendations to alleviate issues as the Working Group.  The main finding that we emphatically disagree with relates to the “toxic environment” of the campus. We simply have met with countless workers, and heard their stories at several forums, as they painfully came forward with heart wrenching accounts of reprehensible things such as sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and retaliation for speaking out and racial discrimination.  There are other issues and recommendations that we have identified that were not in the report from the Working Group. It was clear to the BFSA from the number of complaints and concerns that have and continue to be brought to our attention that an in-depth strategic review of many of the programs, policies, personnel and offices that were created to address issues of equity and resolve workplace concerns is warranted.  We say this with great concern because much of the institutional infrastructure that was put into place to address issues of equity at UM came into being because of efforts of the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA). Many of our longer-tenured colleagues in the BFSA have been alarmed and dismayed at the erosion of the purpose and direction of initiatives they and others struggled and advocated for over many years. These programs, personnel positions and initiatives were created and charged with creating a more equitable and fair campus.

It is no secret that the university has a dubious historical legacy surrounding issues of access and equity. It is to the university’s credit that it sought to address these concerns and unfortunate that we seem to be regressing.  While the campus has done much to publicize many of its diversity efforts over the past two decades, it has ceased to be vigilant in addressing many of the concerns and thematic issues that can be found in numerous university-commissioned internal reports during that period of time. The hiring of a chief diversity officer can either be a significant opportunity or an effort that only impacts the university with a “newly” titled position. Such a position can only be successful if it is given full institutional support and an ongoing review of its mandate.

1. We strongly advocate that the campus needs to address numerous issues to alleviate many of the concerns that have been brought to our attention from UM employees. There is a deep distrust of many of the personnel, offices and procedures in place charged to resolve workplace issues. We have heard this throughout our staff forums and this information is also documented in past reports. The university must empower offices and personnel charged with resolving workplace issues to be advocates for staff and true facilitators of conflict resolution in the workplace. Their arms should not be tied with administrative tasks or procedural processes that undermine their effectiveness.
2. There is a need for managerial and leadership training for supervisors across the board.
3. There needs to be a renewed emphasis on sexual harassment training, as many of the complaints that we received illustrate that there are major incidents on the campus that go unreported or unaddressed.
4. The university needs to have an internal process for reviewing personnel hearings and practices to ensure that those who administer and adjuacate these processes are held accountable to follow ethical and truthful procedural methods.
5. The university needs to regularly review the recommendations of past diversity-related reports to ensure that issues identified were adequately addressed.
6. The university needs to focus less on guarding its back from a legal and public relations perspective and more on treating employees who are experiencing conflict in the workplace as valued community members.
7. The university needs to ensure that the Equity Council and President’s Commissions function according to the mandates under which they were created.
8. University personnel need to be given appropriate opportunities for job training in new skills, as well as given opportunities for advancement.
9. The university needs to clarify rules of fraternization between employees and supervisors in the workplace to ensure that those who do not have such personal relationships or common denominator factors with supervisors have equitable chances for opportunity.
10. The university needs to mandate more equitable and “common sense” policies in the workplace that allow non-exempt staff to experience and be given some of the graces and considerations that exempt staff have in regard to work/life issues.

These include exemptions where necessary for staff to deal with personal and family issues, as well as adequate consideration for late arrivals at work during weather emergencies/natural disasters or traffic emergencies.

”Diversity is one of our strengths”, is a phrase often stated as one of our values. We must, then, never accept anything that weakens the structures that have been put in place to address such concerns.  It is our hope that the university will continue its present efforts in re-committing itself to the goals of diversity, fairness and equity by strategic review and accountability and by providing adequate resources to units and offices charged with doing such work.

We look forward to working with you in the creation and maintenance of a just campus community.

Sincerely,

The Black Faculty & Staff Association’s Executive Board

(University of Maryland Chapter)