As the Office for Institutional Diversity (OID) approaches a full year without a director, the position's future remains uncertain in light of expected high-level administrative changes.
Lisa Coleman, the last executive director of the OID, resigned in December 2009, shortly before University President Lawrence Bacow's February announcement that he would be leaving Tufts at the end of this academic year.
Bacow has declined to appoint a new OID director before his successor takes office, citing the fact that the director reports directly to the university president, according to Chief of Staff Michael Baenen. The Board of Trustees is expected to name the next university president by the end of the calendar year.
"As a practical matter, it would have been difficult to attract outstanding candidates for the position if they did not know the president they would be working with after this year," Baenen said in an e-mail to the Daily.
Baenen said that new presidents usually initiate administrative restructuring upon assuming office, so the nature of the OID's director office is subject to change.
"It is too early to predict how the position may evolve until the next president has the opportunity to assess Tufts' needs and opportunities," Baenen said.
The director is tasked with promoting institutional diversity, working with administrators across the university and reporting to Bacow, according to Baenan.
Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator Ryan Heman, a senior who sits on the Equal Educational Opportunity Committee, said the director also researches faculty retention, faculty enrollment, student recruitment and other benchmarks of institutional diversity.
Baenen said the responsibilities of the vacant office have been temporarily delegated to various administrators, including Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Jacqueline Hymes, Director of Diversity Education and Development in Arts, Sciences & Engineering Margery Davies and Associate Provost Vincent Manno.
Meanwhile, the Arts, Sciences & Engineering Equal Educational Opportunity Committee is meeting with administrators and faculty across the university to assess the impact of leaving the OID director's position vacant, according to committee chair Keith Maddox, associate professor of psychology.
Maddox said the committee will lobby the new president and his staff for what it eventually decides is the best way to ensure institutional diversity at Tufts, which could include renewing, expanding, restructuring or even abolishing the directorship entirely.
He said that having an OID director is not necessarily the only way to pursue institutional diversity.
"On the surface, having this position sounds better but having a position that is efficient and achieves a good outcome is more important and is what we will advocate for," Maddox said.
Maddox hopes the next president will appoint a new OID director, or at least ensure that some other position exists to continue the director's functions.
"In general, it would be a bad idea to get rid of the position, but the administration would have something in its place to take on those responsibilities," Maddox said. "If the position isn't replaced by some other body, it could be a step backwards."
Heman said that while there is no way to ensure the responsibilities held by the previous director will be met under the next administration, he is confident the university will continue to pursue institutional diversity.
"As far as I know, there isn't a particular body that will assure this position will exist in the future, but regardless of how this position is filled, diversity won't be left behind," Heman said. "Diversity has been the hot topic when searching for the new president and the university has made very clear that they are committed to diversity."
How the university will pursue that goal of diversity is as yet undetermined, Heman said.
"It's an issue of timing and an issue of waiting," he said. "It's not something students should be mad about but something they need to ... keep their eye on."
