Report on Expanding the Role of the Elon University Multicultural Center

Strategy 4: Expand Professional Staff and Collaboration with Faculty
To increase support and retention of students of diverse populations and to enhance multicultural education across campus, the Center’s staff must increase in size, and the staff must have opportunities to develop professionally.

1. Appoint a Multicultural Faculty Fellow: The Multicultural Faculty Fellow (see Appendix II for full job description) is an appointment given to a current, full-time faculty member, who is awarded course release and supporting funds. The Fellow is Multicultural Center’s liaison with faculty and staff in promoting diversity awareness and infusing diversity into the curriculum. The Multicultural Faculty Fellow will work collaboratively with the Multicultural Center staff and director, and the Advisory Committee and directly with the Director of the Center. The position will be appointed by the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students and the Provost, in consultation with the Academic Deans and the Director of the Multicultural Center. The Center will seek a faculty member who has demonstrated interest in multicultural education and expertise in integrating multicultural education within courses.

Goals of the program are to:

a. Provide faculty with an understanding of multicultural topics and how they can be implemented in the curriculum.
b. Achieve better integration of multicultural education across the curriculum.
c. Provide a bridge between curricular and co-curricular programs.
d. Promote the personal growth and development of students, faculty and staff.

2. Professional Staffing: Throughout this plan, the work of the Center will expand to more fully support, mentor, recruit, and retain students of diverse populations, as well as to provide enhanced and increased campus-wide multicultural education for all students, faculty and staff. In order to meet these challenges and truly serve as a campus Multicultural Center, the current staffing model must be expanded. Current staff with part-time collateral positions will need to become full-time, additional staffing will be needed at the Assistant Director level, and the role of the Director will need to be expanded (see Appendix III for position overviews). Currently the staff of the Center includes 2.25 FTE professional staff (the Director, two ½ time Assistant Directors who also worked ½ time in other departments, a ¼ time Assistant Director who also works in another department), and a full-time Program Assistant. The staffing needed to support this plan calls for moving to a professional staff of 4 FTE (a Director, an Associate Director, and two full-time Assistant Directors), a Faculty Fellow with two course releases per year and a program assistant. A suggested timetable for expanding the staff for implanting this plan follows.

a. Generate interest for and identify the Center’s first Multicultural Faculty Fellow position in 2009-2010 to begin work no later than fall 2010.
b. Combine the two half-time Assistant Directors into a full-time Assistant Director overseeing the academic scholarship program and the growing multicultural education programs for the beginning of the 2010-2011 year.
c. Shift the ¼ time Assistant Director to a full-time Assistant Director to strengthen the mentoring programs for the beginning of the 2011-2012 year.
d. In 2012-2013, explore methods for enhancing the role of the Director of the Multicultural Center. This position should be seen as the central voice and expert for both the growth of the students, faculty and staff of diverse populations and campus wide multicultural education. The committee recognizes the need for an administrator, with expertise and experience in the field, to serve as campus ombudsman while still staying in contact with the operations of the Center.
e. In order for the Director to fill this enhanced role, it will be necessary to have a seasoned Associate Director within the Center in 2013-2014. Depending on the size and scope of the Center’s programs at that time, this position may be a completely new role or be a promotion of one of the Assistant Director positions.