Efforts to improve UC Davis' diversity need to go far beyond identifying new recruitment strategies to examining both campus and community values. That was a recurring message from faculty and staff members and others speaking Monday at a Campus Council on Community and Diversity forum. Associate sociology professor Carl Jorgensen suggested that criteria for faculty tenure and promotions should include a demonstrated ability to teach classes of culturally diverse students and service to diverse communities. He questioned if most white faculty members could meet those criteria. "If I'm wrong, don't get mad. Just come and have coffee with me. I'd love to talk with you about it." Jorgensen said he has turned down requests to serve on university committees because he feared that perceptions that he was sacrificing his research would hurt his chances for promotion to full professor. "Under these circumstances, we really can't hire more people of color unless we are willing to consider changing our values." Jorgensen said that in the campus's history, he knew of only a half-dozen African American faculty members hired by social and behavorial science departments. When he joined the faculty in 1970, he said, there were four and now there are only two including himself. He said since the campus began conducting open searches in the early '70s, no African American faculty members have been hired in the social and behavioral sciences except in African American and African studies. Monday's forum drew more than 100 people to MU II in the Memorial Union. The 90-minute meeting included updates on faculty, staff and student recruitment efforts, though most of the forum was left open for questions and comments. Leading the discussion was Roberto Paez, who was appointed last month to a one-year post advising the chancellor and provost on diversity. "We are in a unique place," Paez said. "In some ways, you could call it a crisis place." At the same time, Paez said the crisis presents a "wonderful opportunity" to improve both diversity and the environment on campus. However, Desmond Jolly, an agricultural and resource economics consumer specialist and a member of the diversity council, said he feared the campus would find itself back at the same point in another five years. "Crisis response doesn't always make for the kind of systemic, long-term change that we seek," Jolly said. "Cultural change doesn't occur in a year. It takes a generation." He said the university should be doing more to guide promising minority and female high-school students into academic careers. "We're not doing that now," Jolly said. "We're just looking at who's out there we can hire." Laurie Lippin, a human and community development lecturer who teaches an "Ethnicity and American Communities" course, said minority students risk feeling increasing alienation on campus as class sizes grow and it becomes harder for faculty members to maintain personal contact. She said the campus should look beyond its own borders and work to improve the climate for minorities in the city of Davis. She said many of her students experience hostility in the community. "They are watched. They are followed. The Davis police force has not been particularly friendly to our students of color." The city's Human Relations Commission has created a committee to look into civility in the community, said Deanna Falge Pritchard, a committee member and retired UC Davis affirmative action officer. "We're very concerned about the environment in the city of Davis," she said. She suggested the committee and university work together. Damaris Solano, a Student Accounting accountant who came here from the Bay Area five years ago, questioned why UC Davis is less successful than UC Berkeley in hiring minority staff members. When she joined the campus, she said, "I felt that I had moved back 20 years in the way the staff is treated." Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert Grey said the forum raised many "excellent suggestions." "Be assured that we are listening," Grey said at the close of the meeting. Paez said the UC Davis success in improving diversity will depend on widespread participation across the campus. He urged people to contact him with their ideas. "I don't think there's a magic bullet anywhere. But unless we hear from folks, we're just going to be doing this over and over again."