questions posed in advance of and during the listening session

Making sure that older workers who apply for positions are getting equal opportunity forbeing hired and that age discrimination is not operating against them. In line with this,assessing the current population of workers in staff positions to see what the age spread is.Part of supporting diverse staff members is educating all staff members. How do weencourage, support and maybe even require staff/faculty to reflect upon their privilege,interactions and decisions to improve attitudes, climate, services, etc? How do intersectingidentities impact/complicate/help improve efforts along these lines?People from diverse backgrounds that work in the capacity of faculty or staff (and students)consistently encounter negative unwelcoming environment from co-workers/counter partsand/or supervisors, what will be done to retain, and penalize individuals that create stressfuland unpleasant environment?Some University employees hold very strong traditional religious and conservative politicalbeliefs that are in direct contradiction to the values of diversity and equity. These beliefswere likely forged in childhood and are core personality components of many Universityemployees. How do you intend, in practical terms, to reconcile an environment containingthese strongly held and regularly expressed personal beliefs with the stated goal of valuingdiversity and fostering a non-hostile work environment for people with different backgroundsand values? Do you believe that a written policy is sufficient in itself to create a Universitycommunity that sees diversity and equity as strengths? If not, what further, regular actionsare you willing to take on and/or lead in order to create, foster, and strengthen such aviewpoint within the University community? Please pardon my anonymity. I applaud andsupport your efforts.My department has struggled on issues of diversity. Despite this, I have been forced to findtraining around diversity on my own and sometimes external to the UMN, so I often wonder"where are my co-workers?"There are 2 things that come to mind regarding "culture" at UMN. First, too often I am theonly diverse person in meetings and that is a challenge that prevents me from speaking upor sharing on these topics. I know the reaction from others will be “Well of course he’sgoing to say that. He’s the only person of color in the room.” This is one obstacle thatprevents us from moving forward.There are many entities across campus working at that grassroots level to change thosevalues and beliefs and it would be helpful to have a centralized place where people can learnand access all the many, great resources on campus. A place where people can feel safeasking for more training if they need it - for instance, the mental health unit.The challenges for society today calls for a larger question, diversity of views provides agood framework to address this, what are your views about how to integrate their ways ofknowing to address these large questions.How can we provide ongoing diversity and equity support and training?There is currently a growing Islamophobia problem across the US and Europe, driven byanti-Muslims individuals who are being financed by organizations to marginalize Muslims inall aspects of society - including education. Given that you have Muslim staff members andstudents - would you be open to promoting trainings to HR and college heads to counter thetide of Islamophobia?I fully support diversity on campus, but am concerned when embracing diversity meanslimiting/eliminating the rights of others i.e. Winter Season vs. Holiday Season. What is the Uof M doing to ensure everyone (including majority groups) can retain their ethnic/religiousidentity?We need to treat people differently as everyone is different. Is it fair or discrimination?We can't attend class 2 to 3 hours a week during the day that offered on campus even if weare willing to make up hours that we have missed. Is it fair?4