A campus conversation Monday on increasing faculty diversity soon turned into a discussion of the University of California's Catch 22: While continuing to pursue a diverse faculty, the university has eliminated the use of race, ethnicity and gender for choosing students who will one day feed into the faculty recruitment pools. In the first of this year's Provost's Conversations on Community, Diversity and Higher Education, Mildred Garcia, associate vice provost for academic affairs and associate professor in social and behavioral sciences at Arizona State University West, addressed "Diversity as a Catalyst for Excellence: Faculty Recruitment and Retention." After Garcia's 45-minute presentation, the assembled group of nearly 30 shifted the focus from faculty diversity, or lack thereof, to concerns of inadequate undergraduate and K-12 education for underrepresented students. "We are faced with the under-education of all our groups in this country, regardless of race," said chemistry professor William Jackson. In light of last week's campus activities calling for full reinstatement of affirmative action in admissions, Jackson also expressed concern about the possible passage of Proposition 200 in Washington state as a parallel to California's Proposition 209. "If that passes, will we see a flood of these anti-affirmative action propositions across the nation?" Jackson asked. Law professor Martha West, who specializes in employment discrimination, pointed to Scholastic Aptitude Test scores as further barriers to minority students seeking a university education. Those students often can't afford the several hundred dollars to take a prep class to better their scores, she said. In moderating the discussion following her speech, Garcia agreed with the concerns presented. "Classrooms are the laboratories of social change," she said. Having diversity in the classrooms allows for people of different backgrounds to learn how to work together and fosters an understanding between them, she said. Garcia's 45-minute presentation not only included a number of studies, polls and statistics to bolster her argument that universities should actively pursue diversity, but it also provided practical how-to advice. "Diversity must be as indispensable as democracy is to our society," she said. "Toward that goal, we must be willing to engage in transformation." That process of change must be ongoing, Garcia said. She called upon the administrative leadership of universities to work as a team with the faculty to build diversity. Garcia acknowledged that diversity will mean different things in different places. New York, Kansas and Davis all have different interpretations of diversity, she said. She encouraged the recruitment of faculty "who will challenge the status quo in order to revitalize the disciplines." To bring these people into the university, Garcia offered a number of suggestions: -- Identify diversity in a mission statement as part of the values and goals for the university;-- Move beyond exclusionary thinking in hiring;-- Cultivate institutional commitment for diversity; -- Develop accountability among departments; and -- Debunk the myths that there aren't enough qualified minority applicants.