Ithaca College’s BIPOC Unity Center has not yet hired a permanent director since undergoing a name change in Spring 2023 and a merger with the First-Generation and MLK Scholar Center in Spring 2024. However, it now has the largest staff it has had since before the changes. At this time, the center plans to focus on intersectional programming to continue engaging students meaningfully.
In an Aug. 26 Intercom post, Stanley Bazile, vice president of Student Affairs and Campus Life, announced updates within the center. Cliff-Simon Vital and Shadayvia Wallace are now co-leading the center as interim associate director and associate director, respectively. McKenzie Murry joined as the new program coordinator and Erin Foster is the administrative operations coordinator.
The college launched a national search for a permanent director in May, but Bazile said the college decided to pause the search because it could not find a qualified candidate. Bazile said the college wants to be intentional and thoughtful about the process and will relaunch the search in the coming months, but did not specify when.
Bazile said the search could have been extended to identify a candidate who was a good fit. However, instead of looking for a new director — which would not be filled until November or December — he said the college is focusing on fortifying the existing leadership within the center.
“We wanted to make sure [to] get this to get the semester [started] off correctly,” Bazile said. “The last thing we wanted to do was start the semester, not have someone and then we’re waiting … to fill that position. That’s not what the students need, and that’s not what the students deserve. … That, to me, would have been irresponsible on our part, considering the importance of the work that happens in the center.”
Vital said the main responsibility of a director would be to fulfill the mission statement of the center by supporting first-generation students and the Ithaca Achievement Program and Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship recipients.
Luca Maurer, executive director for Student Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, provides supervision to the BIPOC Unity Center. While the search for a director has been paused, Maurer said the center is still supporting students efficiently.
“This structure right now provides continuity at the beginning of the school year,” Maurer said. “I am just delighted to have [Wallace and Vital] in co-leadership roles because … they have their finger on the pulse of what students need.”
Junior Leticia Rebelo de Oliveira is a student employee who has been working at the center since Fall 2022. Rebelo said even though there is no permanent director, it does not feel like the center is lacking support.
“We call it fully staffed right now [within ourselves] because we have … four professional staff working in the office,” Rebelo said. “When I started, it was only the director. It seems fully staffed even though at the end of the day … we are not completely fully staffed.”
In November 2023, The Ithacan reported that Angélica Carrington, former director of the BIPOC Unity Center, and Radeana Hastings, former program coordinator of the BIPOC Unity Center, were no longer employed at the college. At the time, many students expressed their frustration with the lack of clear communication from the center.
Rebelo said that during the uncertain phase in Spring 2023, many students did not feel like they had a resource to turn to. Now, Rebelo said, the center is equipped to help students in its full capacity.
“I feel like I never received the answers I wanted, but I accepted what happened,” Rebelo said. “I think we are now fully prepared to support the students again. It was challenging as a student of color to feel supported when everyone was coming and leaving.”
Following the departure of Carrington and Hastings, the center held a listening and processing session. Vital said the center plans to continue providing spaces like those in the future as well.
“We continue to put our mission forthright … by maintaining and upholding our expectations of communication and transparency,” Vital said.
Bazile said the college is still in discussions about when to resume the search for a director but is cognizant of how students would want to be involved in the process.
“We do recognize that when you lose a member of the campus community that has developed relationships with faculty, staff and students, there’s an impact there,” Bazile said. “And when we get to the point where we are looking to [resume the search] for a director position, I will be sharing that [information] again with constituents around campus. … There’s no secret in terms of what we’re doing. This is important, and it’s going to continue to be.”
Maurer is co-leading the campus climate survey, which was conducted in Spring 2024. Maurer said the Center for Equity, Inclusion and Belonging hopes to engage with the center based on the results of the survey.
The survey showed that underrepresented communities on campus, like first-gen students and students of color, reported lower levels of comfort on campus. Maurer said going forward, the Center for EIB and the BIPOC Unity Center want to work together by focusing on intersectionality.
“The way that the Center for Equity, Inclusion and Belonging is able to propel the work forward of the BIPOC Unity Center is in part, by serving as a reminder to the campus community that people don’t live their lives in individual silos,” Maurer said. “People don’t show up just with their Black or brown self in one space, or their gay self in another. … People are intersectional.”
Rebelo said she is excited to see how the BIPOC Unity Center will emphasize intersectionality and is curious to know how students can learn from each other through such programming.
“I’m excited to see how intersectionality plays [out],” Rebelo said. “I’m an international student and I’m a BIPOC student. But at the same time I’m a white-passing … Latina. … So I think we have a lot to learn from each other and a lot to learn on how to find belonging all around … and it will be very good for our community.”
