President Gregory Geoffroy approved a new diversity mission statement drafted by the Diversity Committee.

The new statement created is a combination of the two classic styles that most universities use: a list of the different types of diversity and a comprehensive meaning of diversity.

Dawn Bratsch-Prince, associate provost for academic personnel chief diversity officer, was involved in getting the new diversity statement approved.

“The previous statement gave more of a list of the diversity categories,” Bratsch-Prince said. “But our committee felt that they wanted to talk about diversity in a broader perspective, more as an attitude and an action.”

Bratsch-Prince said that members of the committee didn’t want to focus on defining diversity because once they defined it, they felt as if they were limiting what diversity truly meant.

When looking at the new statement, it is a strong combination of both definition and an attitude of diversity as the first paragraph does list some elements of diversity.

“It is more about creating a diverse campus environment and climate,” Bratsch-Prince said.

The ISU campus has many multicultural student organizations. This new statement is looking to only enhance this climate around campus.

“We talk about diversity more as an action rather than a static list of categories,” Bratsch-Prince said.

Bratsch-Prince recognizes that there is no perfect solution for getting everyone on board with an idea but an idea has to start somewhere and has to have “a launch pad.”

“Diversity fuels creativity, innovation and success,” Bratsch-Prince said. “It enhances the mission of the university.”

The start of the updated mission statement started in 2009 at the ISCORE conference when the subcommittee presented multiple times to participants to get feedback about, not just Iowa State’s mission statement, but other schools’ statements as well.

After the ISCORE conference the gathered information was compiled to create this updated statement.