UO President Michael Schill said he believes diversity needs to be woven into each of the university’s top priorities and made a topic of regular discussion to create a truly welcoming learning and working environment.

In recent remarks at his first meeting of the President’s Diversity Advisory Community Council, Schill said he’s still getting familiar with Oregon’s diversity terrain. But he noted that in his previous role as dean of the University of Chicago School of Law he learned the importance of speaking out about equity and inclusion in everyday ways to help reinforce their importance.

Schill said his top priorities for the UO are building its faculty and academic reputation, boosting access and affordability and offering a world-class education. Some council members questioned the absence of diversity from that short list, but Schill said it is a priority within each of his goals.

“Diversity is a form of education,” said Schill. “One of the things that’s most important about getting an education at a great school like the University of Oregon is that you come into contact with people who are different from you. You learn about them. They learn from you. That’s the way we move forward as a nation.”

Schill met with the diversity council as part of his get-acquainted tour of the UO’s Eugene and Portland campuses.

“This meeting is particularly important because we have an opportunity to speak with, learn from, listen to, share with our new president Michael Schill and help him to understand where we’ve been at the PDACC, where we want to go, how we want to help him take the university forward on the equity and inclusion fronts,” said Yvette Alex-Assensoh, the vice president of the Division of Equity and Inclusion.

Information on the diversity council is available at http://inclusion.uoregon.edu/PDACC. The Division of Equity and Inclusion is at http://inclusion.uoregon.edu.