Associate Director of Admissions Janine Jones will become the Interim Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as the school launches a search to find a permanent person to fill the newly created position, President Rick Commons told the Chronicle.
Commons is planning on announcing Jones filling the new position to the student body at the school’s second Moving Forward meeting today after school about diversity on campus.
“As our climate assessment made clear, we have important DEI work to do in order to fulfill our mission, and Janine Jones has proven herself to be an inspiring leader in this area,” Rick Commons said. “We will launch a search for a permanent Director of DEI next fall, and we are fortunate that Ms. Jones is willing to take the reins in the meantime.”
The creation of this position has been in talks for some time, though it was originally meant to be filled starting in the 2018-2019 school year.
Discussions of diversity have become more prevalent on campus, following a recent controversy of student use of racial and homophobic slurs as well as the release of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion climate assessment in February.
