More than half a year after a group filed a report on the issues Latino workers face at Duke, employees and administrators say the University still has much to do.
The report, addressed to Vice President for Institutional Equity Sally Dickson, discussed recruitment, retention and advancement of Latino employees, as well as tensions between black and Latino employees in lower-level positions. Dickson said her office has followed up on recruiting concerns by developing new strategies for bringing more Latinos to senior-level management positions.
Although Dickson said the University struggles with local recruitment, she said OIE has cultivated national resources.
"It's probable that the Hispanic professional population is very small here right now," Dickson said. "There just isn't the critical mass yet."
In addition, OIE has worked to provide translated materials for its Latino workers and applicants. The Division of Human Resources now has bilingual forms and documents, as well as oral interpreters who can help Spanish-speaking applicants during recruitment and orientation.
Human Resources has also concentrated on increasing workforce diversity, including several events targeted at the Latino community. Last weekend, the department set up a booth at El Foro Latino, a local Latino conference hosted by the nonprofit advocacy group El Pueblo.
Human Resources and the Office of Continuing Education have offered Spanish language classes, which have been attended by several managers and supervisors from the Department of Facilities Management within the Division of Auxiliary Services.
Mike Snyder, facilities management training coordinator, said trial classes last fall proved successful. "We had employees clamoring to get in on the class.... In addition, folks that have taken the introductory course are now wanting an intermediate course," he said.
The University has also offered several courses for employees wanting to learn English.
Miriam Lopez, an employee in food services, said that because of the language barrier, many employees do not feel there are opportunities to advance. Lopez said she is aware of the English-as-a-second-language classes and even attended one, but that she did not think most Latino employees knew about the classes.
University officials, however, said they felt employees are mostly aware of the education opportunities open to them. They also said that despite the report's contention, tension between Latino and black employees was not a major problem within the Duke workforce. Lopez said, however, there is a perception among managers that black workers are less willing to do as much as Latinos.
"We've used the traditional channels of advertisement, and we haven't had any reports of tension between Latino and African-American employees," said Paul Grantham, director of human resources communications. "We may have had some differences of opinion, but you want a difference of opinion. You want an environment that supports the free expression of opinion."
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