Becky Kroll, director of the University of Minnesota Women's Center, and Patricia Mullen, director of the university's Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, recommended the addition of "classroom climate adviser" as a new faculty position. Mullen said they conceived the idea after she took a call "from a student who was unhappy about a classroom discussion of a cultural diversity 'hot topic'—in this case, Columbus. The student felt the discussion got out of hand and that a fellow student's crude comments were not adequately handled by the instructor." To avoid situations that are "disruptive to the learning process," specially trained graduate students and staff members would be available to deal with such grievances, or as an aid to any instructor who "feels some students are having trouble distinguishing between theories I have to teach and my personal beliefs about controversial matters in the area of diversity."

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