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Students, admin discuss ODA’s future

By Angela Hatcher, Senior Staff Writer

On Monday night in the Armstrong Student Center Office of Diversity Affairs (ODA), Scott Walter, assistant vice president of student affairs, and Jane Brownell, vice president of student affairs, moderated a forum with students to discuss the changes that will occur at the ODA for the coming 2016-2017 academic year.

Among the most important changes discussed at the open forum is the new structure of the ODA, which will combine three different centers - The Women's Center, the current ODA and LGBTQ Center - in an attempt to promote intersectionality and increased interaction among diverse students on campus.

Both Walter and Brownell emphasized that, despite merging the three centers, no funding will be cut and no jobs will be lost in the transition.

Rather than having these individual centers remain separate, the new model will bring them together to function as a cohesive unit with one presiding director while allowing current directors of each center to maintain their positions.

This change was spurred by the retirement of Juanita Tate, director of divisional initiatives, and Gerald Yearwood, senior administrative director.

Both Tate and Yearwood had over 30 combined years of experience on campus. They formed connections in their time here and acted as advocates for students of diverse backgrounds when those students felt marginalized and voiceless at Miami.

Yvania Garcia-Pusateri, assistant director of diversity affairs, and Shevonne Nelson, assistant director of the office of diversity affairs and coordinator for GLBTQ services, voiced their concern over losing half of their staff for the coming year.

"Gerald [Yearwood] is the best work 'dad' ever and Juanita [Tate] is work 'mom,'" said Nelson. "As a staff, I'm incredibly nervous about our future." While students at the forum were informed of the changes to come to the ODA and given the space to voice their opinions on individual matters, Garcia-Pusateri and Nelson have had little communication about the future of the ODA and the nature of Yearwood and Tate's replacements.

"Are they replacing both of them [Yearwood and Tate], either of them or neither?" asked Nelson. "The fact that we don't know what any of this means is incredibly disheartening. It's saying that we work this hard, but we don't mean enough to be told what's going on. It shows that we aren't a priority."

Students at the forum last night were eager to express both their frustration and support of the ideas presented by Walter and Brownell.

In regard to the new structure, students were divided.

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"It's already going to happen. They've made their mind up. We should just try and make the best of this," one student said.

Another student posed the question: If the current structure of the ODA isn't broken, why try and fix it?

Both Walter and Brownell emphasized the goal of promoting intersectionality. They discussed being hopeful that a combined ODA with three branches would allow students of all diverse backgrounds - racial, ethnic and gender - to interact even more than they already do.

"If this is really about student affairs, there should've been more student involvement," one student said.

"Yes, we're students, but we can't make all the decisions," another student said.

The main concern among students seemed to be who Yearwood's replacement would be.

"We need someone - an advocate - who has that voice, because students here feel like they don't," a student said. "We need that person who will call administrators and call professors and call them out on injustices at this institution. We need someone who has respect like Yearwood and can keep that respect."

Brownell voiced her understanding of student concern and asked the students who were present for a little bit of trust.

Magda Orlander, a third-year western major responded directly to Walter and Brownell on the topic of trust.

"I think what the issue is for a lot of people here is that trust is definitely lacking," Orlander said. "I see that you being here, you want to engage us in these decisions. But those of us who do have these trust issues, have them for good reasons."

Walter and Brownell made it clear at the forum that the selection process for the two void positions was to be transparent and engaging to students. They also said their priority was understanding the students' priorities moving forward.

During the forum, students addressed everything from the glass windows in the ODA sensationalizing the fact that there are black students at a predominately white institution, to renaming the ODA something that does justice to the students who comprise it rather than giving them the labels of "diverse" and "minority."

Nelson described the progress she and the ODA have made in terms of policy, such as the implementation of gender neutral housing, relabeling bathrooms and utilizing Safezone training.

The place where there hasn't been as much progress is the student body.

"As an institution, we haven't held students accountable. We're very comfortable saying that 'diversity matters,'" Nelson said. "But we're not very comfortable saying this is how we are demonstrating it matters, or here's how we can be better."

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