The SUNY Board of Trustees approved a new diversity policy, which will stretch across all 64 campuses in New York State.

In upcoming years, each SUNY school will be mandated to add a chief diversity officer and develop a comprehensive diversity plan in order to increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities.

The diversity plans will ensure that staff at SUNY schools undergo cultural competency training, and that new staff must be hired from a diverse pool of candidates.

Valerie Hampton is the chief diversity officer in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Binghamton University. Despite the fact that BU is already ahead of the curve, Hampton said that the mandate will help continue the efforts the University has undertaken.

“The emphasis and support from both the Governor’s Office and SUNY Administration will serve to reinforce our commitment to the provision of the high impact, high quality education through developing programs and initiatives that promote inclusive excellence at Binghamton,” Hampton wrote in an email.

The policy also requires that SUNY schools give students the option to declare their sexual orientation and gender identity when they register for classes. This will allow for administration to get a better sense of the population.

According to Ruslan Klafehn, the Student Association’s vice president for multicultural affairs and a sophomore majoring in political science, this aspect of the new policy is important for BU. He continues to push for an LGBTQ resource center, which he says is important to have in addition to the diversity resources offered.

“It’s important that the LGBTQ community gets their own center that they can go to with their concerns and their problems that they’re facing,” Klafehn said.

Kelvin Santiago Valles, a sociology professor, said that while the new policies are a movement in the right direction, there is still work to be done.

“I think that the problem goes to how they define diversity and equity,” Santiago Valles said. “What I’ve seen from the public statements, both from SUNY central and from SUNY Binghamton, is that they define diversity in terms of differences between individuals.”

For Santiago Valles, the problem is not just the differences between people, but the way in which these different people are treated.

“The policy as it exists, at least as I have read it and seen it implemented so far, doesn’t address these inequalities,” Santiago Valles said. “It merely addresses the appearance of difference, while leaving untouched the existing inequalities.”

BU President Harvey Stenger said that the new policies are in line with initiatives that the University has set forth, but he is happy to see them adopted for all SUNY schools.

“We applaud Governor Cuomo and SUNY Chancellor Zimpher for this sweeping new diversity, equity and inclusion policy, which reinforces initiatives implemented at Binghamton as part of the Road Map process,” Stenger said.

Klafehn said that the most important thing is for students to be in an environment which fosters their education, and it is up to the University to ensure that.

“If students don’t feel comfortable being at the University,” he said, “if there aren’t the necessary facilities, then that’s really on the fault of the University and should be addressed.”