Dean Daniel Teraguchi doesn’t want you to be intimidated by the Office for Diversity and Academic Advancement (ODAA), now entering its second year. The head of the ODAA rejects what he calls the “diversity police” approach to campus issues.

“I don’t go around telling people what is wrong and what is right about diversity,” Teraguchi said.

Whether it’s discussing chalking as free speech or administering programs like WesConnects (the student of color mentoring program), Teraguchi sees the ODAA as a catalyst for university-wide dialogue about tolerance and intercultural affairs. At the center of these many programs and services, Teraguchi—Dean Danny to students who work with him—cuts an energetic figure. At the beginning of an interview in his brightly decorated office, he pushes a copy of the Alumni of Color newsletter across the table, directing attention to the final paragraph of a profile titled “Meet Dean Danny” written by Faraneh Carnegie ’05.

“I left our conversation frustrated and pensive, but with significant insight into the many ways in which I exercise my power on a daily basis,” it reads. “I can only imagine that it is this effect, multiplied by his myriad constituents, that constitutes Teraguchi’s impact on our community.”

“It’s my favorite paragraph,” Teraguchi said, laughing.

Given his fondness for answering a question by posing another, Teraguchi’s eagerness to engage and challenge students is immediately apparent when discussing his role in administering the Campus Climate Log.

“If I ask you to define hate, how would you define it?” he said. “Is chalking a form of freedom of speech when it is anonymous?”

According to Teraguchi, one argument against chalking is that it commands a captive audience. Free speech, he explains, does not apply when other people do not have a chance to avoid what is being said, and some say that the sidewalks on a college campus are unavoidable. These are the sorts of questions dealt with in the monthly meetings of the Campus Climate Log Committee.

Teraguchi also serves on the ODAA Coordinating Committee, which recently identified ODAA’s main goals as promoting the success of students from traditionally marginalized communities.

The ODAA Committee also examined the ways in which race, gender, and socioeconomic status can affect students’ educational experience, at one point suggesting that such factors could even interfere with which classes a student takes.

A summary of the Oct. 24 meeting, which 18 students and faculty attended, was recently posted on ODAA’s website.

“Several students indicated that in some cases students drop majors or withdraw to avoid certain instructors or cannot bear the class anymore due to the classroom climate,” the summary reads.

To address some of these systemic issues, the ODAA facilitates programs like WesConnects, which Teraguchi oversees.

“I don’t do black and white things, so it’s organically developing, but it’s part of the office,” Teraguchi said. “But I influence it as I am asked.”

Virginia Weihs ’08 interns at the ODAA and leads WesConnects. She sees the program as a combatant to entrenched forms of marginalization that often occur in predominantly white institutions.

“WesConnects’ goal, in my view, is to create a space that supports and affirms students of color within this environment, while recognizing the multiple meanings the term ’student of color’ may encompass,” she said.

The other ODAA intern, Jillian White ’08, leads the WesDEF program, which runs diversity workshops for first-year students. White is adamant that the university needs to develop a hate crime policy, which it currently lacks.

“It’s been talked about for years, but it’s really just ridiculous and embarrassing that we don’t have one,” she said.

Whether it’s through WesDEF or WesConnects, the ODAA has adopted a multifaceted approach to promoting diversity as a central tenet of the university.

“We can’t market ourselves as Diversity University and then not protect that diversity,” White said.