The Center for Diversity and Inclusion finds its interim director in Dr. Karin Wimbley. Wimbley’s new position was announced last Wednesday in an email sent to students from Alan Hill, vice president for student academic life, and Anne Harris, vice president for academic affairs.
Wimbley is an assistant English professor at DePauw who also teaches classes related to the African American experience, including African American film and African American literature.
She will work with CDI Assistant Director Matt Abtahi to guide the direction of the center.
“My understanding is that they (she) will play a very large role in supporting our center staff and helping us kind of navigate these next couple months while we begin a search for a permanent placement in the position,” Abtahi said.
Wimbley describes the experience of assuming the position after a discussion with Harris.
“I was talking to VPAA Anne Harris and she also went to University of Chicago, so she knows about my previous experience and we were talking about the position,” Wimbley said.
Wimbley has completed studies about bias incidents at the University of Chicago, where she also served as the undergraduate advisor for undergraduate student affinity organizations.
During their conversation, Wimbley asked Harris “Do you need some help?” to which Harris responded “Oh my gosh, yes.”
Harris and Wimbley noticed the opportunity to collaborate, during this transitional period, in determining the CDI’s comprehensive role on campus.
Dean of Students Myrna Hernandez, who was directly involved in hiring Wimbley, was interested by Wimbley’s work in higher education and faculty, both of which will be utilized during her year as Interim CDI Director.
The permanent CDI director job posting has not been released yet as University stakeholders, student organizations and all related parties finalize the expectations of the position. This work began over the summer and will continue throughout the fall semester.
“They (the hiring committee) met with a series of staff of color and kind of talked about the different diversity and inclusion initiatives that have already been ongoing,” Abhati said.
According to Abtahi, the hiring committee has plans to reach out to Association of African American Students (AAAS) in order to better understand their expectations and demands; however, the organization has received no communications as of right now.
“I am uncomfortable with an in-house hire because not only does it promote nepotism within the institution, but it also places more frustration and more responsibility on black and brown folks, including faculty, to take up the issue of diversity and inclusion and togetherness at DePauw,” Junior Kaleb Anderson, AAAS president, said.
According to Anderson, DePauw needs to focus on hiring a director from outside of the institution to bring new solutions and policies, which will create a culture that promotes diversity and inclusion.
In response to concern about an in-house hire Wimbley said, “I wasn’t aware of that particular request but I don’t know that that’s a bad thing. I think that there is some wisdom and logic to that. Every center for diversity and equity is specific to their institution so no two CDIs are going to look the same.”
She hoped, however, that finding somebody who has experience at a different liberal arts school working at their particular CDI would be able to bring new models to DePauw.
Although Abtahi and Wimbley both understand the in-house hire concern, Wimbley does not view it as a necessity.
“It's really about borrowing, exchanging and seeing ideas. In that sense I think it could be really useful to have somebody with no early affiliation but at the same time you could say that an alum who’s been away for many, many moons could still fit that model,” Wimbley said.