Ithaca College’s BIPOC Unity Center shared its staff coverage plan for Spring 2025. Cliff-Simon Vital, former associate director of the BIPOC Unity Center, is now the interim director of the center after Shadayvia Wallace, former associate director of the BIPOC Unity Center and program director of the MLK Scholar program, left the college at the end of Fall 2024.
Wallace left the college to pursue a new job opportunity as the director of educational opportunity programs and assistant diversity officer at Tompkins Cortland Community College.
“Ithaca College has been more than a workplace — it has been a community where I have grown personally and professionally, built meaningful relationships and had the honor of working alongside so many of you in service of our students,” Wallace said in an Intercom post.
On Jan. 1, Vital became the interim director of the center. As part of his new promotion, Vital now oversees the MLK Scholar Program, First-Generation Program and Ithaca Achievement Program. McKenzie Murray was promoted Jan. 16 from program coordinator to assistant director. She focuses on organizing events like the center’s Unity Fridays.
Vital said one of his goals is to go beyond just providing the basics of food and housing support for students, to make the college feel more like a home.
“We are trying to do bigger and better things,” Vital said. “We are in the process of seeing our identity politics being at the forefront of national news. Within the next couple of semesters, we will work out our new goals and our initiatives [to create] a strategic plan for our office. How do we go from belonging to mattering? We want you to know that you’re heard and that you’re valued.”
In Fall 2024, the center offered the Protect Your Crown Retreat which taught students about different hair textures and how to be confident in their natural hair. Vital said he is creating a strategic plan that outlines new goals and events for the next few semesters. As part of the strategic plan, Vital said the center plans to host new retreats including Beyond the Crown to help students focus more on hair appreciation and Building Better Brotherhoods to show students how to break down their masculinity and focus on being vulnerable with each other. Vital said that beginning Feb. 10, the center will host an MLK Celebration Week.
“We’re putting on a big week of events focusing on how the carceral system has a disproportionate impact on black and brown bodies,” Vital said. “So we’re calling it ‘Breaking the Chains.’ How do we disrupt the carceral system and create a more equitable space for everyone where the color of your skin is not a warning sign to officers and legal law enforcement?”
The center has had three different directors in the past two years. Despite frequent staffing changes at the center, Vital said he plans on working at the center long term. While he is currently not the permanent director, he said he is applying for the position and hopes that students will support him through the college’s search process. Michelle Hammond, senior director of talent management in the Office of Human Resources, said she anticipates a search will be launched for the director position in the next couple of months.
“One thing that I always say, and I’m gonna keep saying, is as our office changes, our resources will always be the same,” Vital said. “Our services and our commitment to our students has never changed.”
