Elizabethtown College’s Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX department is a campus body that, despite its important role, is often discussed with an air of mystery. With cuts impacting the department over the summer, there were questions about what would be the future of diversity programming at the college.

Throughout the last few months, the department has been undergoing restructures in order to better articulate its role to the campus community. These changes impact the faculty and programming from the department, in line with the department’s mission statement.

Over the summer, the former Associate Director of Multicultural Communication and Affairs, Stephanie “Stepf” Diaz, was let go by the College. The timing of this caused students to be concerned that her position, like the positions of furloughed faculty, was also being cut.

These concerns were articulated clearly by junior NOiR president Erik Frennborn.

“For students of all backgrounds, [Stepf] was someone they could trust and talk to, and go for support whenever they needed to,” he said. “In my opinion, when Elizabethtown College let her go it showed that they didn’t value diversity seriously.”

Sophomore Rebecca Li felt similarly.

“With [Stepf] playing such an integral role to diversity programming, I was concerned that many students would not have someone to turn to when they needed it,” she said.

The staff of the Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX department responded to the concerns about Diaz directly. The first point that they wanted to address was that while Stepf Diaz may no longer be on campus, Associate Director of Multicultural Affairs and Coordinator of Pipeline Programs Dr. David Stewart now holds the same responsibilities Diaz had on campus. Stewart will be in charge of running programs out of the Mosaic House, and other programs run by Diaz will continue to take place on campus.

“We are grieving and the campus is grieving for the loss of Stepf— and that is okay,” Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX Dr. Armenta Hinton said. “But, please don’t grieve for the work because the work is going to continue. I don’t want students to feel that all is lost.”

In fact, junior Veronica Ruiz said that, “having David Stewart to talk to… helped me transition [into college].”

“One of the misconceptions is that the College has removed resources for students who feel marginalized,” Hinton said. “In fact, our resources have been enhanced in unique ways.”

These enhancements address both the Mosaic House and Safe Zone training, which had previously been run by Diaz.

Hinton will run the training alongside GSA liaison Ryan Strohl. Hinton said that the training has been “re-invisioned” so as to “keep up with industry standards.”

A key point regarding the department’s implementations are that they are already underway.

“We will be bringing in an external trainer who is an officer in ACPA as well as a trainer and Diversity Officer at Nazareth College,” Hinton said. “He will be bringing a newly revised Gender and Sexuality Model.”

Safe Zone training will be running again as soon as Oct. 28 at 4 P.M. The program will be held in Hoover 110, and still endeavors to certify students so that they can be a meaningful resource to their LGBTQ+ peers.

The Mosaic House is not currently operational, but Dr. Hinton noted that it was also not used very often in the 2018-2019 school year. The building has been undergoing renovations for ADA compliance and gender inclusivity.

It is expected that the Mosaic House will reopen in the spring 2020 semester.

Despite the diversity work being done on campus, there still remains a perception among students that there is not a cohesive support system that they can rely on.

Senior president of GSA Sarah Kaden expressed that it was a priority for her to “see more cohesive efforts to support diversity, rather than individual faculty, staff or students who take initiative.”

Kaden is not the only one who said they felt that diversity work currently sits heavily upon the students.

“Due to the nature of the campus, many minority students don’t have much of a choice but to advocate for themselves,” Li said.

Associate professor of music Dr. Kevin Shorner-Johnson, who has been working on Latinx recruitment on campus alongside assistant professor in education Dr. Peter Licona and associate professor of engineering Dr. Tomás Estrada, agreed.

“We have some good resources in that we have caring faculty, but what we lack at Etown is really intentioned, focused work towards diversity. We have some catching up to do,” Shorner-Johnson said.

Ideally, the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX would fulfill this role on campus. In many ways it does, especially when considering the goals outlined in its mission statement and its explicit “commitment to inclusion.”
This commitment is being shown through the work the office has already been putting towards events, programs and education on campus.

Diversity programs are already in the works and will run over the course of the year. These events are run out of the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX— often in collaboration with other departments on campus.
However, diversity on campus is not merely a matter of programming on the part of the department itself. It is contingent upon the awareness and engagement of students.

“We ask our students to work with us and to understand that we are always going to have their best interests in mind,” Hinton said. “We are going to continue the work and ramp the work up, since [it is felt] that it is not there.”
Stewart also recognized the importance of student engagement.

“The only way to bridge this [perceived gap] is for students to see the work, try it out, and start to feel that… [faculty] is on their side,” he said.

Students, too, have a desire to engage more with diversity programming on campus.

“My hopes for diversity programming going forward is that more students will be aware of what is going on,” Frennborn said.

“The world is diverse. If we’re not used to it here, we won’t be used to it anywhere,” Ruiz said.
Engaging meaningfully with the resources that are currently available through the Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX Office is something that requires collaboration between faculty, staff and students.

“So often we think of diversity work as the work of people of color … Diversity is a job for everyone on campus. Etown students can all be advocates of diversity … and take the burden off of those who are always tasked with diversity,” Shorner-Johnson said.

The Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX faculty and staff are available to students “24/7,” according to Hinton.