[JaneYoung]

Diversity is something the 'real world' is working with in the 2000's, trying to find that balance.

Last week, I was at a staff retreat and a part of it had to do with creating a diversity mission statement for a made up corporation, non-profit, or business of our choice and then marketing it as such.

I've been attending workshops and meetings regarding the topic of diversity for a while now. Many universities have diversity statements.
Innovation, mutual respect, communication, future leadership are just a few examples of the goal/mission. Reason being - historically, there have been excluded populations in regard to recruitment, retention, and talent in many fields of education.

It sounds like your team is having to work within the constraints of the school's expectations/mission. I don't know if you have done this but you might think about talking to the team regarding developing a mission statement and a diversity statement. If you have a handbook with your rules/guidelines/recruitment policy stated clearly in it - then you can address change if you feel it is needed with the powers that be. The more organized/prepared your team is with a business plan and one of organization, the better you can represent it. For example, I have sat on interview committees. The candidates haven't always fit into all the boxes that one should ideally be able to check off regarding diversity, experience, skill sets. Because of the background/research that we've done, the homework we've done backing up the ability to justify why a candidate would be a good fit, we have been able to hire excellent candidates that we otherwise might have missed out on.

If someone outside the team is setting the restrictions such as team size, etc. then it is up to the team to best handle the restrictions and guidelines by being as professional and organized as possible with a well developed organizational/business plan. When that is in place, then the team can develop a plan of action to present - dealing with the problems that arise such as empty spots due to members dropping out.