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Vice President for Equity and Inclusion

Employer
Bates College
Location
Maine, United States
Salary
Salary Not Specified
Date posted
Jul 28, 2022


Title: Vice President for Equity and Inclusion

Position Purpose:

The Vice President for Equity and Inclusion will provide institutional leadership to ensure that the college’s commitment to equity and inclusion is reflected authentically in campus culture and carried out in furtherance of the mission of the college and the experiences of all who are part of the Bates community. Working with colleagues in different departments, the VPEI will be responsible for providing an overarching leadership framework, and also for managing the staff and operating budget of the Office of Equity and Inclusion, which is overseen directly by the VPEI.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE AND TIMELINE:

Bates College has partnered with WittKieffer in this search process. Review of applications will continue until the position is filled. For fullest consideration, applicant materials should be received by the priority deadline of October 15, 2022 though applications will be accepted until an appointment is made.

Candidates should provide, as two separate documents, a curriculum vitae and a letter of application that addresses the responsibilities and requirements described in the Leadership Profile. References are not requested at this time.

Application materials should be submitted using WittKieffer’s candidate portal.

Nominations and inquiries can be directed to the WittKieffer consultants supporting this search:

Charlene L. Aguilar, Ed.M., and Darrien Davenport, Ed.D.

batesvpei@wittkieffercom

Job Duties:

Leadership Opportunities and Challenges

A commitment to the values of access and equity in education runs deep in Bates’ history and mission and animates our current efforts to ensure that all members of our community are supported to thrive. In recent years, Bates has garnered significant philanthropic support for its equity and inclusion work, including a substantial grant from the Mellon Foundation, focused on the humanities, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence grant, focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Both grants support curricular transformation and inclusive pedagogy. Bates has been an institutional leader in both the national organization of Liberal Arts Diversity Officers (LADO), a consortium of more than 24 liberal arts colleges, and the Creating Connections Consortium (C3), funded by the Mellon Foundation. As a result, the new Vice President for Equity and Inclusion will be part of a community where equity work is a visible institutional priority to which substantial resources have been and will continue to be devoted.

The VPEI will possess the ability to create a coherent, sustainable, and motivating vision for equity and inclusion work at Bates, build trust with campus constituencies, and be effective in moving the work of equity and inclusion forward within the context of a liberal arts college. They will identify key challenges, set priorities, build relationships, support ongoing work, share expertise and ideas for new approaches, and inform decision-making for the college as a whole.

Much of the VPEI’s work will be accomplished through strategic collaborations across the college. The VPEI will work to understand the experiences of historically marginalized students, faculty, and staff as they arrive at Bates and work with colleagues to design effective strategies of support that will help them to be successful in what they have come to Bates to do. The VPEI will also serve as a visible leader and accessible presence as we work collectively to create an authentically inclusive and equitable community.

Opportunities

More specifically, the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion will be expected to:
  • Oversee the staff and management of the Office of Equity and Inclusion.
This office serves as a resource for the college as a whole, providing educational programming and training in equity and inclusion for the Bates community. The VPEI and their staff also provide counsel to colleagues in managing specific situations in their departments involving equity and inclusion issues. Over the past four years, many Bates faculty and staff have participated in racial equity training and other programming. These efforts were led by the Director of Equity and Inclusion Education, a position created within the Office of Equity and Inclusion and reporting to the VPEI. With the departure of the Director of Equity and Inclusion Education this past summer, we have left this position open so that the next VPEI has maximum flexibility to define the path forward for racial equity training and education at Bates, drawing on outside experts and speakers, as necessary. The budget of the Office of Equity and Inclusion supports full-time staff in the office and provides funds that can be used to engage experts and speakers from outside Bates.
  • Enhance approaches to faculty and staff recruitment, development, and retention.
In collaboration with colleagues in academic affairs and human resources, the VPEI will create policies and structures that enhance the recruitment and retention of a diverse and inclusive faculty and staff. They will develop resources for search committees, including guidelines and protocols that reflect current research on effective practices in recruiting, hiring, and retention. The VPEI will develop and promote opportunities to support the career development of faculty and staff with particular attention to those traditionally underrepresented in the academy. They will identify strategies to strengthen effective mentoring practices, to facilitate networking, to foster the acquisition of skills, and to provide career guidance to ensure an inclusive environment that supports faculty, administrator, and staff development and career progression.
  • Work with colleagues to promote equity and inclusion in the student experience and ensure that all students, and particularly those from traditionally underrepresented groups, are supported for academic success and full participation in the student experience.
Our goal is to recruit a VPEI who enjoys and has experience teaching or working with students in other ways, and who will welcome the opportunity to get to know Bates students and the student culture on campus. We do not expect the VPEI to manage student programming or support services directly, but rather to work with colleagues in student affairs, particularly those in the Office of Intercultural Education, to make sure that students receive the support they need to participate at Bates in ways that fulfill their own goals for their college years. We also hope that the VPEI will involve students in the work of equity and inclusion in ways that will promote their growth and development.
  • Support college-wide efforts in inclusive curriculum and pedagogy.
With respect to the academic program, the VPEI will collaborate with the dean of the faculty and faculty across the college to support efforts in curricular transformation and inclusive pedagogy within divisions and departments. At the beginning of this academic year, the dean of the faculty called on all academic departments and interdisciplinary programs to develop a plan for “foundational dialogues” in their own academic unit, to be completed by the end of the 2022–23 academic year. The goal of these dialogues is to help units build the intellectual and emotional capacity as well as the background knowledge in their fields to begin or continue curricular transformation with the goal of creating a more inclusive curriculum and pedagogy. This work is in addition to the work on inclusive excellence funded by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in STEM disciplines and by the Mellon Foundation in the humanities and in the humanistic social sciences.
  • Lead assessment and evaluation of initiatives.
Working in collaboration with senior staff and the Office of Institutional Research, the VPEI will ensure that effective systems are established to assess the needs of the community in different areas and measure the success of the specific approaches undertaken to address those needs.

For a full overview of this position, please refer to the Bates College VPEI Leadership Profile .



Preferred Qualifications:

Bates seeks an intellectual and administrative leader committed to the values of equity and inclusion and the central role they play in a liberal arts education that aims to provide a life transformative experience for all of our students. They should possess a point of view on effective approaches to the work of equity and inclusion on a liberal arts campus, and a view of how they would go about developing a specific framework and vision for this work at Bates. Once here, they will need the communication skills necessary to share, and achieve buy-in for, their vision and approach; and the ability to translate this vision into clear and meaningful action.

We will consider candidates with academic training who have achieved tenure as well as those who are earlier in their careers. We also welcome applications from those whose experience has occurred outside of higher education, though we will seek evidence that these candidates understand the field in general and small liberal arts colleges, specifically. The right mix of training, education, and experience may take a variety of shapes, all of which we are open to considering.

Candidates should possess many of the following qualities:
  • Significant and successful experience in creating, implementing, overseeing, and evaluating institutional equity programs within an academic environment; a demonstrated track record of advancing equity and enhancing inclusiveness; and an ability to bring groups and individuals to common ground across lines of difference.
  • A commitment to engage collaboratively with faculty, staff, and students and to respond effectively to their needs and concerns.
  • A systems thinker with the ability to keep a broad institutional view and strategy in balance with tactical engagement with constituents and programs.
  • Proven skills to serve in an administrative role, with demonstrated ability to mentor and support their staff and provide successful oversight of people, budget, and space.
  • Demonstrated success in supporting and advocating for faculty, staff, and students from traditionally underrepresented groups, including international students and scholars.
  • Proven ability to lead with discretion, equanimity, and ideas that inspire, accompanied by a sense of responsibility and follow-through.
Benefits:

Bates College offers competitive salaries, excellent benefits (health, dental, sick leave, 24 days of vacation, 2 personal days, 12 paid holidays, dependent care subsidy, free parking, access to library and athletic facilities & more) and a supportive, collegial environment in a drug- and smoke-free workplace.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

Bates College is committed to the principle of equal opportunity and providing an educational and work environment free from discrimination. The college prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status and other legally protected statuses in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its education policies and programs, or in the recruitment of its faculty and staff. Bates College adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations. All college faculty, staff, students, contractors, visitors, and volunteers are responsible for understanding and complying with the Non-Discrimination Policy.

Inquiries concerning the college’s policies, compliance with applicable laws, statutes, and regulations (such as Title VII, Title IX, and ADA/Section 504), and complaints may be directed to Gwen Lexow, Title IX Officer, 207-786-6445 or via email at glexow@bates.edu .

About Bates:

Bates is internationally recognized as a leading liberal arts college, attracting 2,000 students from across the U.S. and around the world.

Since 1855, Bates has been dedicated to educating the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. Committed to opportunity and excellence, Bates has always admitted students without regard to gender, race, religion, or national origin.

Cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action, Bates prepares leaders sustained by a love of learning and zeal for responsible stewardship of the wider world. Bates engages the forces — intellectual trends, demographic changes, and technology — that are transforming higher education and the world into which our students graduate.

Bates has highly competitive admissions, graduates over 90 percent of its entering students, and more than half of its alumni earn graduate degrees. Bates employs 200 faculty members and 550 staff.

The college is proud of deep roots in the Lewiston/Auburn community, Maine’s second-largest urban area with a population of approximately 65,000. Bates is located on a beautiful, 133-acre, traditional New England campus in Lewiston, an emerging city with an entrepreneurial climate, a lively arts scene, and a dynamic business community. Bates is 35 miles north of Portland, 140 miles north of Boston, and 350 miles north of New York City.

Advertised: Aug 08 2022 Eastern Daylight Time
Applications close:

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