Photo: Elizabeth Gipe
The Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX at Elizabethtown College is undergoing many changes during the 2018-2019 school year. Most notably, the Office of Diversity has expanded from its history of being just one person, to adding a second person to work on programming, to becoming a team of three people, with more on the way.
Currently, the Office of Diversity comprises the Director of the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX Dr. Armenta Hinton, Coordinator of Multicultural Programs Stephanie Diaz and Assistant to the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX MaryAnn Sluzis.
In spring 2019, the Office of Diversity will welcome associate professor of education Dr. Shannon Haley-Mize as a diversity faculty fellow.
Previously, before Diaz’s position was realigned with the Office of Diversity, she worked under Residence Life with students about social justice. The assistant to the Office of Diversity is a new position that was added after the Office of Diversity realized a third person was needed.
Not only does Sluzis’ position act as an administrative assistant, but the assistant to the Office of Diversity is expected to be culturally competent and to undergo training in Title IX, which includes how to handle and progress through a case.
According to Diaz, diversity work has been happening on campus for a while now, but it’s always been fractured.
“I think that by having the three of us working together and … feeling more like a center [of diversity], we’re able to bring those resources and the people who are doing the work together, so that it can have a more impactful feel,” Diaz said.
Hinton, Diaz and Sluzis all agreed that while the Office of Diversity is branded as an “office,” they consider it more as a “center” for diversity.
The expansion of the Office of Diversity marks a large step forward in Etown’s mission of diversity.
“Diversity was always a nice thing to do, but it wasn’t something that was thought of as an institutional moment,” Hinton said about the institution allowing these advances in the Office of Diversity.
The Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Title IX is located on the second floor of Nicarry Hall. This is the first time the office has been in an academic building, since previously it was in Alpha Hall, the Baugher Student Center and the High Library before the move to Nicarry.
Additionally, this allows the Office of Diversity to be more available to faculty to use its resources. The office sent out a list of resources to the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for faculty to use, and a copy was sent to the library, as well.
Diaz said that being in an academic building lets her bring a “robust academic side” to her programming, since new and different resources are available to make those programs bigger and better.
The Office of Diversity hopes to get greater visibility on campus so that it can provide resources for everyone: staff, faculty and students alike.
For example, the office plans to implement two new programs in the spring that will be based on a social justice model, specialized just for Etown that it hopes will be beneficial to the faculty.
The office also will welcome “the Tattooed Professor,” Dr. Kevin Gannon, to Etown to discuss social justice and inclusive classrooms. The addition of a diversity faculty fellow in the spring will also help advance the programming in the office.
As for current programming, after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Office of Diversity put a whiteboard up on the wall outside of its offices in Nicarry, encouraging anyone to share their message after the tragedy.
Next to the whiteboard was a printed statement about the shooting, which is available on the Office of Diversity’s website.
This received a positive response with there being a number of messages left on the small whiteboard.
The office even mentioned how they received a suggestion to put up a larger board so more people can take a moment out of their day and spread positivity through the board.
“That’s one of the ways in which I see this work is changing the way people view diversity on campus,” Hinton said about the whiteboard.
“I feel that more than ever right now, with everything happening in the current climate, that we need to find ways to support each other and embrace our differences,” Sluzis said.
An open house for the new Office of Diversity will be held Wednesday, Nov. 28 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. so that it can communicate with students, faculty and staff about who the personnel in the office are, what their mission is and what resources they provide. Even with all the changes that have happened to the Office of Diversity, its mission remains the same.
“Nothing, not a word of our mission or goals or objectives has changed,” Hinton said.
For more information, please visit the Office of Diversity’s website at https://www.etown.edu/offices/diversity/index.aspx.
