This summer, Virginia Tech narrows its search for a new vice president of diversity and inclusion to three final candidates.
Before each candidate’s visit, the Collegiate Times is sitting down to ask him or her a few questions.
The vice president of diversity and inclusion is the top diversity officer at the university, answering directly to President Charles Steger.
“This person leads all our programs in diversity, works with admission in seeking a more diverse group of students, and with hiring faculty in seeking a more diverse group of applicants,” said Ed Spencer, vice president of student affairs. Spencer also chairs the search committee.
The search began when previous vice president for diversity and inclusion Kevin McDonald stepped down in January after taking a job as the as chief diversity officer at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Since his departure, Karen Sanders has been serving as the interim vice president.
The candidates are Antonio Farias, Melva “Cookie” Newsom and William Lewis.
Each will make a visit to the campus once this summer to meet with faculty and students and get to know Tech better. Each will also attend an open forum where the Tech community is invited to ask the candidates questions.
Farias was the first to visit Tech, attending a forum on June 10. Newsom came to campus to attend a forum on June 29, and Lewis’ will be Thursday, July 1.
The forums are all held at 4:30 p.m. at the Holtzman Alumni Center.
Q&As with Farias and Newsom can be found at collegiatetimes.com and this week features an interview with Lewis. This is the final installment of a three-part series.
COLLEGIATE TIMES: What background experience do you have that is relevant to this position?
WILLIAM LEWIS: My body of work spans social work, higher education, community development and entrepreneurship, all of which I’ve been working in regards to social justice and diversity related types of activities. My master’s degree is in social work, and the NASW code of ethics, really it’s a code that bounds social workers to working to help disenfranchised individuals become part of the core of any society. And so within my professional work and my educational experience I am really poised to continue to work in this work. I am currently director of diversity at Bridgewater State College. I’ve been doing this work at a high level and then also as director of diversity at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
CT: Why did you decide to apply?
LEWIS: I am always looking forward to an opportunity to sharpen my skills as an institutional leader, and always looking forward to being a part of the leadership team that advances not only diversity but also just advances the full potential of college students. Applying for the vice president of diversity and inclusion at Virginia Tech allows me that opportunity to continue to work at the highest levels of an institution to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for every constituent group on campus.
CT: Describe how you would have the office interact with other campus groups and organizations.
LEWIS: In order to really advance successfully an inclusive excellence and diversity agenda, the chief diversity officer has to be a collaborator, first and foremost. So, that individual has to connect and develop relationships and partnerships with other institutional stakeholders, within and throughout the campus community and also the community at large. And so I actually see my role as a steward of the process, and my goal is to kind of to steward the process along and to facilitate cross collaboration with other departments and units throughout the campus.
CT: What do you think Tech’s biggest problem is with diversity?
LEWIS: You know, one of the things I look at is I see opportunities, and I think a great opportunity is to take the diversity strategic plan, and begin to implement that plan for long-term success. Over the years, the office of diversity and inclusion has had several changes. You had a change of leadership going back to Dr. (Benjamin) Dixon, and then Mr. (Kevin) McDonald, and so looking for some consistency throughout the effort and moving that consistency throughout the institution and moving diversity throughout the fabric of the institution. So the opportunity is really to help facilitate a change through a very huge, large, complex organization. And so the opportunity is to provide consistency with the diversity agenda, and also advancing that throughout a very large, complex organization.
CT: What do you think is Tech’s biggest strength in terms of diversity?
LEWIS: One of the things that I am excited about is, first and foremost, the commitment, and not just in the short term but the long term commitment that Virginia Tech has displayed toward diversity. Well over, publicly anyway, well over a decade with the first office of the vice president for multicultural affairs. When you look at that type of commitment, and also when you look at the fact that the institution has done several self assessments of itself around the diversity and inclusion aspect, that’s very exciting because it tells me that Virginia Tech is an institution that is self aware, and recognizes that it wants to go from being a good institution to being a great institution as it relates to diversity and inclusion. It’s making a commitment known by continuing to, especially in these tough economic times, to continue to hold the line as it relates its commitment to diversity and inclusion.
CT: What do you think is the most important thing for my readers to know about diversity issues at Tech?
LEWIS: First and foremost, I look at this concept of inclusive excellence, and so what we’re looking at is two concepts. We’re looking at the concept of equity and the concept of inclusion. As readers begin to think about diversity, my challenge to them is to begin to redefine the definition of diversity and that redefining that diversity means that we’re bringing more and more groups and individuals to the table. So no longer do we continue to look just at race issues, although race is part of the agenda, the agenda is much broader than race. For example, we begin to look at, how do we support our veterans as they enter into higher education? How do we begin to fully support our students with disability? How do we support students with different learning styles? And really, if I think about diversity, I’m not thinking about it from a process that talks about race-specific policies and practices, but I’m really looking at diversity from a process where we’re talking about inclusion. How do we create space where each individual has the opportunity to reach his or her full potential?
CT: What do you look forward to the most if you were to come here?
LEWIS: Oh goodness. First and foremost, to be able to continue to advocate and advance the successes of students at Virginia Tech. To be part of the academic community that prepares the next generation, that continues to prepare the next generation, which will be exciting. Also what will be exciting is to work alongside the leadership at Virginia Tech in terms of being a part of the institutional core of helping students reach their potential, so being a part of the leadership team and engaging with students. Previous to Bridgewater, I come from Indiana University. And I tell you, to be on a large campus and to engage in excitement, it’s like popcorn if you will, when the campus is bustling like popcorn during a fall or spring, and even in the summer months there’s a lot of activity. To be able to engage in the full campus activity will be exciting as well.
CT: What would you miss most about your current job?
LEWIS: One of the things I like the most about my current job is we are a very collegial group here. To be able to advance change when you’re sitting in a room with the key stakeholders is exciting, because now you’re able to really talk about, how do we move change forward. My colleagues here are really committed to our students. It’s really exciting when you’re working for an institution where your colleagues are committed to student success.
CT: What attracted you personally to a career in diversity?
LEWIS: Excellent question, excellent question. I would say that this type of career, and really, I would say a career of social justice and a career in helping people reach their full potential is something that kind of bubbled up in my when I was young. I went to the Marine Corps right after high school, I went to the Marine Reserves, and at that point in time I was thinking that I would become a career military officer. So I wasn’t really thinking about going to college, per se. But once I was in boot camp, I realized that, “Hey, I want to go to college, I want to do some other things with my life,” so I got my undergrad degree in criminal justice, thinking that I was going to be a lawyer in criminal justice. But I as began to work in the criminal justice field I realized this is not what I want to do, although I wanted to work with people and help people. And so I moved from criminal justice to working in the social work field, and I got my master’s degree in social work, and I was like, “This is what I want to do.” I didn’t know it was going to be diversity, per se; I just wanted to help people. I just wanted to advance humanity. I wanted to impact humanity in a very positive way, and it just so happens that I’m able to manifest that internal desire through the way of diversity.
