Provost Lisa Staiano-Coico has announced a new Academic Center on Research in Diversity (ACCORD), which will facilitate intercultural dialogue, strategies and initiatives to address gaps in achievement — in the greater society and in higher education — related to race, gender, class, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion and other forms of distinction.

“Temple is committed to its continuing evolution as a community of inclusive excellence, open to high achievement for people of all backgrounds,” said Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Lisa Staiano-Coico. “Diversity at all levels enriches faculty, students and staff and creates more ‘Opportunities for Success’ — a key strategic initiative in our Academic Compass.”

In addition to achievement in higher education, the center will also focus on unearthing barriers and establishing bridges to breaking down socioeconomic stratification and on identifying ties between biodiversity and the quality of life.

The Faculty Senate Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color initiated and developed the center. This committee, which includes Karen Turner, Faculty Senate president and associate professor of journalism; John Street, former mayor and adjunct associate professor of political science; Jackie Tanaka, associate professor of biology; Kimmika Williams Witherspoon, associate professor of theater; and chair Roland Williams, Jr., who is now the director of the center, will continue its involvement.

Williams, an associate professor of English whose expertise is on black images in literature and film, clarified that diversity is not just about color. “We’re concerned about all forms of distinction and how they affect achievement. Disputes about women in science and gays in the military will concern the center as much as blacks in NASCAR,” he said.

Distilling the center’s raison d’être, he added, “Look what diversity has done for the Phillies. A great mix of people makes a great team.”

In running the center, Williams will be joined by Marie Amey-Taylor, recently promoted to assistant vice president, who will serve as the center’s associate director. Amey-Taylor brings to ACCORD more than 25 years of experience, designing and delivering diversity training and programming at Temple and throughout the world.

“I am excited by the challenge and opportunity to enhance Temple’s diversity mission and to support its desire to be the model — the gold standard — for applied diversity research projects and programs that capitalize on the university’s diverse faculty, students and staff,” said Amey-Taylor.

The center will lead research efforts examining such issues as “stereotype threat” in the classroom and “implicit bias” in both the classroom and the workplace. Other initiatives will include theatrical workshops, student excursions, staff retreats and service to area youths. All the initiatives promote what Williams calls “meaningful contact,” because “face-to-face, differences vanish,” he said.

In one such project this fall, ACCORD will host an undergraduate forum, “Our Changing Complexion and the Future We Face,” which will bring students together to talk about U.S. Census Bureau projections that estimate that citizens of color will make up most of the nation in the next generation. The forum aims to draw students out of their “comfort zones” and lead them to new ones.

Another fall initiative, a graduate symposium, seeks to boost Future Faculty Fellowships, scholarships that will help Temple develop more pipelines for recruiting outstanding and diverse graduate students.

“The center is a good fit for Temple,” said Williams, “because the university has kept its doors open to the world filling it with diversity and making it a ready laboratory for learning to deal with difference.”