Among the many concerns voiced at the forums held last semester was the need for a dean of multicultural affairs. In fact, students have been asking for such a dean since the mid-1980s. Has the Administration been ignoring this issue for all these years?
Under Dean Cruz-Saco, the Administration has moved finally forward on this issue. No really, they have. They plan to select a new dean by next July. However, both administrators and students are still debating exactly what this new dean will do. Whether the dean will be called “Dean of Multicultural Affairs” is also undecided. Playing politics with the title of the new dean is not a good sign. The bureaucracy has begun. So, who should sit behind the nameplate?
It is expected that the new dean would be able to draw on their own experience and training with multicultural issues to address concerns of students, facilitate discussion with faculty members, work with the Office of Affirmative Action, plan diversity education programming, and be involved with Wesleyan’s Diversity Education Facilitators (WesDEF).
Clearly, the new dean will play an important role in the Wesleyan community. The expectations are great, but there are several traps that come with the territory. Wesleyan should not hire a dean to police political correctness or hold mandatory diversity training in a patronizing manner.
Monday evening, a forum was held in which students had an opportunity to ask questions and express their concerns about the new dean. Including the administrators, about twenty people showed up. Although some expectations of the new dean’s were discussed, it remained unclear what the dean’s relationship with students would be.
What has been looked over is that there are ways to accomplish what students have asked for. Training the current deans to deal with multicultural issues is one suggestion. Increasing their visibility to the student body would be an added and appreciated benefit of this plan.
Students need to get involved while their concerns matter most—before the selection process begins. They have an opportunity to set the priorities for the search. In order for the new dean not to become a band-aid for Wesleyan’s commitment to multicultural affairs, and an empty concession to the students who protested at last semester’s forums, students need to show up and speak out now.
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