Carla Espinoza has notified the university community that it will not see the campus diversity study report by Susan Rankin until after “constituencies who worked with Rankin on the survey (and, undoubtedly, Ms. Espinoza) have a chance to review it.”

Having some familiarity with how Ms. Espinoza’s office operates, my guess is that the report may undergo considerable massaging and editing before it is made public.

Surely Ms. Espinoza wouldn’t allow the report to be sanitized to protect her image or that of the university. Or might she? Ms. Espinoza is assistant vice president for human resources and director of affirmative action — highly conflicted positions that should never be held by one person. Her human resources obligation is to the administration; her affirmative action obligation is to employees of the institution.

However, negative commentary on the university’s commitment to diversity could be a blemish on Ms. Espinoza’s performance in both areas. Although it was Ms. Espinoza who announced that the report will be made public only after it has been “reviewed,” Rankin said that only ISU President Gregory Geoffroy and the diversity committee can release the results of the survey. Rather plaintively, she added, “We’re trying to be as open as possible.”

The university community should make clear to Geoffroy and the committee that it deserves an unvarnished version of the findings.

One would assume that Rankin has already deleted any libelous material.

Interestingly, several years ago — during the Martin Jischke administration — a similar study was conducted of focus groups representing minorities, university employees, diverse faculty members, and other constituencies.

Not surprisingly, the findings contained harsh criticisms of President Jischke and, as I recall, highly specific complaints about the physical plant management team. The report was kept under wraps by a Jischke administrative aide. A sharply purged version of the report was finally filed in the university library.

This shouldn’t happen again.

Bill Kunerth

Professor Emeritus

Journalism and Communication