Starting today, Nov. 21, UCSB will be the focus of a two-day visit by the UC President’s Task Force on Faculty Diversity. The 11-member, systemwide task force, chaired by UCLA Associate Vice Chancellor Rosina Becerra, is charged with reviewing faculty diversity on each campus.

While at UCSB the task force plans to meet with as many department chairs as possible, and still make time for Academic Senate officials, deans and other administrators, the Senior Women’s Council, the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women, and various faculty and staff members.

Their sessions will be coordinated by Maria Herrera-Sobek, UCSB associate vice chancellor for diversity, equity, and academic policy.

On Tuesday, Nov. 22, the task force has set aside an hour to hear from faculty members who are not part of the above groups. That meeting will begin at 3 p.m. in the Chancellor’s Conference Room, Cheadle Hall 5123.

Besides campus visits, the task force review will include an in-depth analysis of faculty demographic data and an examination of existing reports and studies of gender equity and faculty diversity at the University, according to an announcement from the Office of the President.

A Web site on the history and progress of the task force can be found at: <www.universityofcalifornia.edu/facultydiversity>. The site also has biographic information on task force members.

Following the site visits, the task force will develop a report of faculty diversity and UCOP will then convene a systemwide meeting of faculty and academic administrators, modeled after the President’s Summit on Faculty Gender Equity, held in November 2002.