By Heather Fabritze
News Editor
The departure of the inaugural Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Dr. Alisha Knight poses a large obstacle to the continued improvement of the campus climate. However, the Provost’s Office assures community members that they are working overtime to shoulder her duties as Washington College begins its search for a replacement.
Dr. Knight, who was also a professor of English, decorated her nearly two-decade tenure at WC with multiple awards, the creation of the strategic diversity plan, and a DEI forum series. However, last semester, she announced her decision to leave the College for a similar but expanded position at Johns Hopkins University.
According to Provost of the College Dr. Kiho Kim, Dr. Knight departed with a few recommendations for how to improve the role in a manner that would best benefit the greater community. One decision the Provost’s Office made based on her feedback was to expand the duties of the position from Academic Affairs to the entire institution.
With this shift comes a name change from the Associate Provost of DEI to the Assistant Vice President of DEI. The College looked at similar positions in peer aspirant institutions and discovered that other schools have entire offices and staff dedicated to diversity issues, with a cabinet seat to match.
This level of role expansion was not possible for WC’s current financial state and population size.
“We’re trying to find that sweet spot that works for us given the constraints that we are operating under, but also recognizing that this is part of a continuum of practice,” Dr. Kim said. “If we ended up with a much larger student body, we can then always change that position.”
The new hire will report to both Dr. Kim in Academic Affairs and Vice President for Student Affairs Sarah Feyerherm because their work will exist within each sphere. Their foundational duties will include heading the five-year strategic diversity plan, as well as sitting on the same committees that Dr. Knight did with the addition of a few staff and faculty-facing committees.
One of the institution’s most prevalent concerns is the advancement of the plan and the delay the vacant position could create. When the College selects a candidate, the new hire will collect data about the plan’s progress, what WC is doing to meet its goals, and what the institution is not accomplishing.
“We’ll have to reset the clock a little bit because of this gap,” Dr. Kim said. “But the Assistant Vice President will come in, look at where we are with respect to the strategic diversity plan, and figure out how to implement it more holistically [and] more systematically.”
The AVP search will involve an identical process to past recruitment at the institution. In early September, the AVP search committee formed from the already existing Diversity Committee, which included Chief Academic Technology Officer Sharon Sledge, Director of Intercultural Affairs Nicolle Moaney, Student Government Association Secretary of Diversity junior Lili Shimon, and Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Aaron Krochmal.
According to Dr. Kim, the committee, which he also sits on, is looking for a candidate with experience in higher education, preferably someone who knows how to strategically allocate the school’s resources.
“Somebody who’s coming from higher ed understands that there’s always a shortage of resources but huge amounts of work to be done,” Dr. Kim said. “[We want] somebody who spent some time in that environment thinking through how to align these passions with resources to get the best outcome, and somebody who can work across lots of different constituencies.”
Similarly, Shimon acknowledges that the hardest part of any DEI position is the effect that it can have on one’s mental health. Diversity work can be hard on those who commit to it, so it is important that the committee hires someone who possesses the passion needed to carry them through.
If the committee finds such a candidate, their hope is that the College will give the AVP the resources they need outside of finances.
“The most important thing to me is retention. I’m really hoping we can get someone in the position that’s going to love it and that this school is doing enough to keep them,” Shimon said. “I hope more than anything that we’re not only putting someone in the position, but we’re setting them up for success.”
One of the main traits that Sledge is looking for is a leader with experience in all of DEI’s foundational “complexities and nuances,” which the Diversity Committee will continue to support them with.
“The AVP-DEI leader must adopt a strategic and hands-on approach to collaborate with departments and the campus community to achieve sustainable initiatives and measurable results,” Sledge said. “This approach is critical to continuing the positive efforts towards transforming our campus culture and how faculty, students, and staff view, embrace, and value our diverse community in all its splendor.”
As the timeline currently stands, ads for the position will be out by the end of September and will remain up for a month and a half. The committee aims to begin Zoom interviews with initial candidates around Thanksgiving, before the finalists come to visit campus in January.
Until then, the duties of Dr. Knight’s position will fall entirely to Dr. Kim’s workload. He said that he has been working through it with “light touches,” which includes sharing academic affairs information with the Diversity Committee, conducting DEI orientation for new staff, and working with Associate Dean of Faculty and Chemistry Professor Dr. Anne Marteel-Parrish to ensure that faculty searches have an inclusive frame.
Dr. Kim acknowledges that, considering all his other Provost duties, his level of engagement cannot possibly match Dr. Knight’s. He has a strategy in place to determine where he can be the most impactful so that DEI work does not fall to the wayside.
“Obviously, if you think about the institution, there’s more than me doing DEI work,” Dr. Kim said. “Through the cabinet, to faculty leadership, to student leadership, we certainly are trying to bring a DEI lens in all of the work that we do, and so I don’t feel like the entire weight is on my shoulders…while it would be nice to have a point person to look at the institution from 30,000 feet…everybody else is still doing that work.”
This list includes many of the same community members who are now sitting on the search committee. Shimon is dedicating themself to assisting affinity groups and student needs through the SGA as Moaney tackles her new position in Intercultural Affairs with event ideas and institutional support. In addition, the Diversity Committee continues to evaluate the campus’ relationship to DEI even in the face of the vacancy.
However, obtaining a new AVP is their greatest priority, simply because of the essential role the person plays in guiding diversity work at WC.
“I think that we have a wonderful strategic diversity plan, and we’ve not been able to make important progress on it because we don’t have that leadership,” Dr. Kim said. “I think in order for us to make substantive and important and meaningful progress, we need somebody to drive that change, bring people together…if we don’t connect ourselves, I think we could be, in essence, wasting our resources and not doing it effectively.”
Photo courtesy of Dr. Kiho Kim.
Photo Caption: Although retention is important, Dr. Kim believes searching for natural passion in the candidates will result in the new hire’s longevity.