The Office for Institutional Diversity (OID) will remain without a director this academic year while a university−wide council assembled by University President Anthony Monaco assesses the position in context of the existing institutions and diversity issues at Tufts.
"I want to spend more time thinking of the model in which we want to strategically address diversity across the university," Monaco said in an interview with the Daily last month. "We need to look at it and see what model is the best one to achieve diversity in the student body, in the faculty. Refilling a post right now is not — maybe not the best way to achieve that."
The position has remained vacant since December 2009 when then−Executive Director of the OID Lisa Coleman left for a position at Harvard University. Then−University President Lawrence Bacow declined to fill the position given his impending departure and the position's close link with the university president.
Bacow established the executive director of the OID position at the beginning of 2007 to advance diversity across the university's schools. Coleman was appointed director and served until her resignation.
"In addition to overseeing the Office of Equal Opportunity, [Coleman] worked closely with academic and administrative leaders across the university to help them design and implement programs to advance diversity and inclusion in their Schools and Divisions," Michael Baenen, chief of staff in the Office of the President, said in an email.
Co−Chair of the Arts, Sciences & Engineering Equal Educational Opportunity Committee (EEOC) Adriana Zavala, who is also an associate professor of art and art history, said that Bacow's decision not to fill the position raised concerns among EEOC committee members at the time, sentiments which were echoed in the broader community.
The committee strives to encourage a more diverse and inclusive university climate and its members have a "vested interest" in the OID's work, she explained.
"The committee was very concerned when Lisa Coleman left and her position was not filled temporarily," Zavala said.
"My understanding is that the role of the Office for Institutional Diversity has been divided up among various offices and administrators," she added. "There have been concerns that that has sort of been a more diffused way of administering programs that are needed on campus, but that was a decision made under Bacow."
She noted that Monaco's decision to take time to assess the current structure and whether it should be maintained in its current form is not surprising given that it was inherited from the previous administration.
"I think it's perfectly reasonable to spend a period of time to understand the institutional structures that exist at Tufts," she said.
Monaco is in the process of convening a university−wide council on diversity, he announced in an email sent to the Tufts community at the beginning of the semester. The council will be tasked with assessing current institutional structures, including the OID, in the context of the university's diversity objectives.
"One part of its charge will be to recommend how the Office of Institutional Diversity can best advance the university's overall diversity goals and what form it should take going forward," Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler said in an email.
The membership and details of the council are still being finalized, Thurler added.
Monaco hopes that the council will issue recommendations in the early part of next year and then move forward with a set of final decisions by the end of the academic year.
While this will leave the OID without a director for some time, he said that this interim period is time well spent given the importance of diversity to the university.
"I think that we should give ourselves that time, not to rush into a decision about what we want to do in that space, and to really consult and in the end come up with plans that we get support from both students and faculty," he said.
Members of the EEOC have met with Monaco, according to Zavala, and are encouraged by the formation of the council.
"We are very optimistic," she said.
