Reporter Volume 25, No.9 October 28, 1993

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

Educating the campus community on tolerance is the important
initiative of the new UB Committee for the Promotion of Campus
Tolerance and Diversity. The group has already begun a variety of
activities designed to raise campus awareness about issues of
tolerance and diversity and to prevent acts of intolerance, according
to Donna Rice, associate vice president of student affairs and
co-chair of the committee.
	"The value of the committee is that we are proactive," Rice
said. "Our goal is to anticipate anti-tolerance activities, and to
come up with strategies for dealing with them."
	Reorganized in the spring of this year on the basis of an
initiative that goes back to 1989 to investigate acts of intolerance
at UB, the committee includes about 25 representatives from faculty,
staff and students, and plans as one of its major goals to emphasize
and publicize the tolerance-related policies by which UB abides, Rice
said.
	"We hope that the committee will make people realize that the
university will not tolerate intolerance," Rice said. "We have a
president who very much opposes acts of intolerance. There's a lot of
misinformation out there, and people don't know how effective the
campus is at combating intolerance."
	One key element of the committee's work this fall will be a
revision of the University Manual for Managing Bias-Related Incidents,
and an attempt to make clear to members of the UB community how such
incidents will be handled, Rice said. "A document will be distributed
telling people how such incidents can be reported," she said.
	According to Michael Stokes, director of student multicultural
affairs and co-chair of the committee, the committee has already begun
its activities with the distribution of a survey designed to identify
already existing campus-wide efforts to promote tolerance and
celebrate diversity. The committee has worked with the University
Advising Council's 1993-94 Multicultural Programming, and will be
co-sponsoring with the Division of Student Affairs and the Office of
the Provost a Nov. 10 teleconference called "We Can Get Along: A
Blueprint for Campus Unity."
	Other committee activities this fall include developing a
student-oriented brochure describing "how to get a multicultural
education and have fun doing it," and reviewing the feasibility of
producing an informational video for orientation and promotional
activities that demonstrates UB's stance on the celebration of
diversity, according to Stokes.
	According to the committee, intolerance is defined at UB as
"any attempt to injure, harm, malign, or harass a person because of
race, religion, color, national origin, handicap, age, sex or sexual
orientation," and includes acts or attempts at physical or
psychological harm or threat to individuals, groups, UB or the
community. According to the committee, acts of intolerance differ
"from other acts of intimidation or criminal behavior" because they
are "motivated by hatred of the characteristics or beliefs of the
victims. Acts of intolerance are conscious, deliberated behaviors in
contrast to insensitive acts, which may be the result of lack of
awareness."
	"The Committee for the Promotion of Campus Tolerance and
Diversity is taking an active role in educating the university
community on multiculturalism, as well as enhancing campus life by
planning and supporting multicultural events and activities," Stokes
said.