Leadership accountability is theme of CMU's second annual campus forum on diversity

Observer Staff

11/5/2003 12:00:00 AM

Central Michigan University's annual diversity forum will focus on developing leaders who can help advance better understanding of working, learning and living styles in an evolving society.

CMU will host its second Campus Forum for Diversity Sept. 25 and 26 in the Bovee University Center. The conference is free to CMU students and employees and $15 for the general public. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.

The workshop kicks off with a preconference session for business administrators and then moves into a formal all-day program that includes concurrent workshops for senior administrators, schoolteachers and teacher education students, and middle and high school students.

More workshops and panel discussions are part of the wrap-up on Sept. 26, including sessions for faculty and staff.

The forum will offer a series of workshops on leadership from various perspectives. Keynote speaker Mo Fahnestock, a nationally known speaker and educator, will lead a discussion on successful strategies for promoting diversity and responsible leadership with communities, particularly for students.

"The driving theme for this year's forum is ways in which leaders�whether a company president or a student�can be responsible and the ways in which diversity plays into leadership or influences it," said Maureen Eke, associate vice president for diversity and international education. "Dr. Fahnestock's passion is to encourage participants and organizations toward authentic growth and development through substantive personal, professional and organizational leadership development programs."

Eke said race and gender have roles in diversity discussions, but there are other aspects of diversity that should influence leaders within organizations, such as recognizing that people within the same environment work and learn differently.

Ulana Klymyshyn, director of the Multicultural Education Center and forum planner, said Fahnestock's expertise in helping to develop a model of authentic leadership makes him a good choice to facilitate the discussion on diversity and leadership.

Fahnestock's model moves leadership beyond a system in which decisions are made "within a vacuum," she said. "His model presents leaders as people who are able to analyze a situation, come up with possible solutions and work with a team of individuals to determine the solution that works best," Klymyshyn said. "It's a model by the late Robert Terry that comes out of working with white people to eliminate racism."

Terry was a previous speaker at CMU and author of the book "Authentic Leadership: Courage in Action." Fahnestock, a colleague, picks up the charge to challenge all people to evaluate the limits they place on change and seek a definition of leadership.

"What are our collective expectations of leaders?" Klymyshyn said. "At CMU we have a strategic plan for achieving diversity, and we have a lot of offices in place, but I'm not sure that all the members of the community are clear on what we're trying to achieve."

For more information, contact (989) 774-7318.