URI is aiming to include more diverse perspectives in their leadership positions. PHOTO CREDIT: Melissa Marchese | Staff Photographer
The University of Rhode Island’s Board of Trustees, Faculty Senate and Administrative Officers are collaborating in their efforts to increase diversity among University Leadership positions.
The aforementioned groups control a large part of URI’s academic affairs and administrative matters.
Margo Cook, the current chair of URI’s Board of Trustees, leads the board in overseeing the appointment of the president, establishing performance goals, budget awareness and further governing decisions.
The Board of Trustees consists of 16 additional members who work under Cook’s guidance, and has only been recognized as an individual entity since 2019, when its existence was signed into law by former Governor Gina Raimondo.
According to Cook, the current board is actively making an effort to increase diversity.
“We do have a number of people on the board that are nonwhite, but it’s something we are continuously trying to figure out – how do we add more people and as a new board, I’m given the job to really find those people so we can really improve our viewpoints and perspectives,” Cook said.
Cook was not a part of the initial hiring process for the board, which instead involved Raimondo and former URI President David Dooley. She said that at that time, diversity was still a large consideration, yet she finds it “critical” to continue evolving by pursuing the consideration of diversity in the University’s hiring process.
A large aspect of increasing diversity on the board, according to Cook, depends on networking. She said that current people of color on the board can open doors to a better understanding of diversity’s importance.
In Cook’s words, having a board that looks exactly the same is “the worst thing” they could do. Instead, she hopes to bring in members that can represent all students at URI.
“What I’ve asked [board members] to do is really dig into not just what we are seeing on the surface, but what peoples’ experiences are bringing to the board that reflect the experiences of the student population,” Cook said.
Her efforts to increase diversity extend beyond race as well. Cook is pleased to maintain a corporate board with 45 percent of leadership positions filled by women.
She said that it is important to have board members with unique backgrounds, such as those who have graduated from URI’s Talent Development program or professionals who identify within the LGBTQ+ community.
“We’re developing a pipeline of people that we think fit all the criteria including diversity, and so there is definitely an effort that we’re putting forward to make sure that pipeline has a good amount of people from many groups,” Cook said.
Interim Provost Laura Beauvais helped URI develop a diversity task force in 2009. She now is working with other administrators on the Anti-Black Racism Agenda.
This Agenda for Change, according to Beauvais, will help infuse diversity into URI’s curriculum and create a distinguished multicultural faculty program.
“We’re working on how to ensure that faculty who are doing [diversity] work in their teaching and research are recognized in the promotion and tenure policies,” Beauvais said. “We’re also working on professional development in this area.”
The Anti-Black Racism Agenda, according to Beauvais, calls for bold actions to provide equal opportunities at URI.
She said that having a variety of genders, ethnicities, sexualities and disabilities represented by University Leadership will also be beneficial for students.
“This is the society we live in,” Beauvais said. “There are a lot of problems in society around these issues, and we want our students to be exposed to this material and to come up with the solutions that are going to be needed.”
Beauvais expressed that URI still has “a lot more to do” in terms of diversity.
Audrey Cardany, President of URI’s Faculty Senate, echoed the sentiments of Beauvais.
She said that the Faculty Senate has created committees across all curriculums where diversity is the forefront issue at hand.
“In our new curriculum management system, we have included an opportunity for faculty to identify in their new course proposals where they will be connecting to the goals in the Agenda for Change,” Cardany said.
According to Cardany, the Faculty Senate will continue to tackle injustice to have a “healthy and vibrant” community.
Mary Grace Almandrez, Associate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of Community, Equity and Diversity (CED), gave some insight as well on the initiatives that are either currently in place or that will be in place to increase diversity in leadership roles at URI.
“We have so much work to do,” Almandrez said. “We are doing a lot but we have so many areas of improvement.”
Almandrez complimented the work of her colleagues and discussed plans to hire four new assistant deans purely to focus on justice, inclusion, equity and diversity in four of the colleges at URI.
“Our hope is to have assistant deans in all the colleges,” Almandrez said. “We think that’s going to add compositional diversity as well as fresh and different perspectives on ways that colleges can really grapple with the issues of social justice.”
Almandrez said that during the hiring process, new faculty are asked about their philosophy around social justice. She described this as a “launch pad” for the University to increase diversity in the community.
Almandrez also spoke briefly about the Campus Climate survey results that were distributed to the URI community in Oct. 2021. The themes that came to light through the survey, according to Almandrez, surrounded the support and question of initiatives of diversity at URI.
“What we have found is that our community is really hungry for opportunities to expand and develop their leadership,” Almandrez said. “We ask ourselves: what are the ways in which we can advance social justice initiatives?”
Students can learn more about diversity initiatives at URI on the CED website or by visiting the Multicultural Student Services Center.