Diversity Facilitator Frances Kendall returned Wednesday to Iowa State once again to speak to about 40 people about “Strategies for Institutional Change During a Period of Backlash.”

Making changes in institutions like colleges, Kendall said, is not about “getting along,” instead, she said, it’s about creating a hospitable organization for people to work in.

Kendall has given keynote speeches and led workshops on diversity in organizations and has worked on a personal level for periods of years with organizations like the University of California at Berkeley, Campbell Soup and the U.S. Postal Service.

She is also the author of “Diversity in the Classroom.”

Kendall listed 15 question areas to ask when taking a look at restructuring a school.

One of the areas was rating “the extent to which your school is able to, interested in, or is willing to begin to take action on its stated commitments.”

Kendall pointed out that there is no perfect-10 school, unless perhaps the school has made no commitments to diversity and taken no action.

“In general, places that have talked have not caught up to their talk,” Kendall said.

Reasons for this may include lack of interest, lack of funds and lack of real commitment, she said.

Kendall also recommended examining the nature of the work a school has done so far on diversity and how effective recruitment and retention efforts have been for minority staff and students.

It is also important, she said, to find how decisions are made and who makes them, looking at both formal, organized decisions and behind-the-scene, informal decisions.

A very important question to ask, Kendall said, is what motivates a university to make changes.

Kendall said that at Iowa State it is obviously not bad press or demonstrations that inspire action.

“The challenge is to find out where pressure counts,” Kendall said. She suggested looking at why other changes have been made and who the moving forces are behind them.

Sine Anahita, a senior in sociology, attended the lecture. “Nothing seems to work here [at ISU]. The only things the university seems to be interested in is football and basketball.”

Kayt Sunwood, a temporary instructor in curriculum instruction, also attended the lecture. She said, “Institutional change and learning the tools to help bring things about is important stuff … This is maybe what we need to hear so we can figure out what to do about [the Beardshear Eight].”

Sine added that she would like to see an increased emphasis on diversity in sexual orientation, ethnicity and disabilities.

“Never give up,” Kendall said.