The second of three finalists for the vice president for Academic Affairs and provost position at Iowa State said he wants staff to view others with an “open and honest eye.”

During an open forum Friday morning, Gary Krahenbuhl spoke on diversity to a crowded Oak Room.

Krahenbuhl is the senior vice president at Arizona State University in Tempe. He has helped implement several programs targeted at underrepresented groups.

“An interesting statistic about ISU is that, except for staff, it is more diverse than the state of Iowa,” he said.

Krahenbuhl said if chosen to be vice president for Academic Affairs and provost, he would like to see more faculty members that belong to underrepresented groups.

“You could expect me to continue to urge the university to be more diverse and stay ahead of the state,” he said.

At Arizona State there is a Hispanic mother-and-daughter program, a Hispanic research center and both African-American and women’s studies programs, he said.

While serving as dean at Arizona State, Krahenbuhl helped implement diversity programs by “asking faculty to imagine the possibilities, and encouraging and supporting those possibilities that made sense,” he said. “I believe that to educate people on diversity, you must start from the top down and encourage activities that all can participate in.”

Krahenbuhl said he wants his staff to view others with an “open and honest eye.”

“We need to create a process where people don’t compare individuals, but criteria,” he said.

Krahenbuhl said although he is Caucasian, he experienced what it is like to be a minority while living in Hawaii among people of Japanese decent.

In a question-and-answer session, Mary Swander, distinguished professor of English, asked Krahenbuhl about how to create a sense of compassion for physically disabled members of the ISU community.

Other faculty members asked about how Krahenbuhl would recruit and retain underrepresented faculty in research positions if chosen as provost.

Swander said diversity should take into account physical differences as well as ethnic and racial differences.

Krahenbuhl said students and staff should look past racial and ethnic boundaries to appreciate each member of the ISU community as individuals. “We ought to see people as people,” he said.