UC Davis administrator Rahim Reed says his office will soon launch a stronger research component to prove his point about the value of diversity in higher education.

Diversity can be measured easily, he said, by counting how various races are represented on campus.

"But there is value, too, in increased productivity, innovation and creativity, and reduced conflict among employees," he said during a recent interview in his Mrak Hall office.

"If you're working side by side, and not talking to one another, then there is no value," he said. Communication, interaction and respect for the differences among us is what leads to greater productivity and creativity, he said.

Reed, associate executive vice chancellor for Campus Community Relations, said the new research component — to be coordinated with other campus units, such as the School of Education — is but one part of a diversity education program that is being expanded.

First, he said, UC Davis plans to begin a national recruitment effort to replace Karen Roth, who served as coordinator of the Diversity Education Program for eight years. She retired from UC Davis in June and took an adjunct faculty position at Oregon State University's Cascades Campus.

Second, Reed said, his office is adding a new position: program coordinator, to run diversity education and sexual harassment training, and faculty development.

Part of the new employee's duties will be to help develop an online program of anti-discrimination training, much like the university's sexual harassment training program. But whereas the sexual harassment program is mandatory, the anti-discrimination program will be voluntary.

"We want to be on the prevention side of conflict," Reed said, referring to conflict that may arise because of race, ethnicity, age, religion or disability, for example.

"We want to help people recognize these situations, and where they can go to get help," Reed said, "to prevent these conflicts from moving further along where we have to engage the legal system."

At the same time, he said, his office will continue to meet increasing demand for personal training within various units and in campuswide workshops. Roth gets the credit for establishing UC Davis' diversity training curriculum, and Reed said she "set the bar very high."

Diversity education cannot be an add-on, he said. "To be an academic institution of excellence, you must incorporate diversity into the core mission," he said.

"What we are trying to do is build a sense of community here, to build a more inclusive community. Diversity without inclusion leaves something out."

Reed took up his post at UC Davis five years ago, becoming one of the UC system's first senior executives for diversity.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced last month the creation of a new cabinet-level position: vice chancellor for equity and inclusion.

While not a part of Reed's job title, "inclusion" has always been part of his mission.

"It's not a new buzzword for us," he said.

Inclusion comes when people feel they are respected and valued members of the campus community, regardless of what may make them "different" from other people.

"We want to take advantage of that diversity, to celebrate that diversity, to embrace it," Reed said, "so that all of us can look at different ideas, and debate them robustly, with respect for one another."

Reed spreads the same message nationwide, as a leader in the effort to establish the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, an offshoot of the American Council on Education.

UC Davis is a charter member of the new diversity officers association, and Reed, as a member of ACE, is part of the committee that is organizing the new group. Its formal establishment is scheduled in February at the American Council on Education's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

For a list of diversity activities in 2006-07, see the adjacent brief, "Diversity Programs Set."