Experience of Gretchel Hathaway · Pillars and Walls

Title

Experience of Gretchel Hathaway

Name

Gretchel

Name - Principle

Hathaway

Location - Physical Location

Schenectady, NY

Role Relationship

Faculty

Record Origin

1998/2020

Record Description Standard

I spent 22 years of my professional life at Union College – one can say I literally bleed Garnet. I have held eight jobs on the campus during my time here: Director of Community Outreach, Counselor in the Student Counseling Center, Director of our Science Technology Entry Program (STEP), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance Officer, Title IX Coordinator, Affirmative Action Compliance Officer, Chief Diversity Officer, and Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). I have seen many positive changes and have handled a lot of challenges around DEI work at the College, on campus and in our Schenectady community.

When I first arrived here in 1998, then President Roger Hull established four faculty tenure lines for departments. He was very specific - the faculty line would be an additional tenure track position for a department and was specific to only include African American and Puerto Rican American candidates. Within three years, we filled those lines and I am pleased to say that three of those faculty received tenure and are still at the College. The bigger issue the campus had was campus climate – for these new faculty and other staff and of course our students.

Soon thereafter, when we had the lines in place, I established an impromptu, confidential group of women of color to meet off campus for shared mentorship on issues that we had to contend with inside and outside the classroom. Note, during this era, I was also teaching in the Sociology Department. Our mentorship included, sharing stories about classroom issues, reviewing and celebrating research accomplishments, while at the same time encouraging each other not to fall into the trap of the extra tax burden put on women and women of color when they are often called upon to either assist a student group or be the token diversity person on a search committee or standard committees. In addition, while wearing my social work cap and skills, we talked about microaggressions (not a familiar word used at that time) from colleagues; lack of respect by students in the classroom; and racial and gender bias on student evaluations. These meetings were confidential because we were in fear that the campus would find out about us and that there might be repercussions. Once we felt empowered to do so, under the leadership of President Stephen Ainlay, we became the CODA group (I do not remember what the acronym stood for) which is now called UCID – Union Coalition for Inclusion and Diversity and which was jointly led by me, as CDO, and the Dean of Academic Departments and Programs.

During my years at Union College, I also wanted our college name to be known for the diversity work we were doing so I joined: the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education(NADOHE); and the newly established Consortium for High Achievement and Success (CHAS) and the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers (LADO). Here are a few highlights that benefited Union College membership in these organizations.

1. CHAS is based at Trinity College, CT. We began offering campus climate surveys for participating institutions – this became a long-term project with CHAS sending out the survey every 5-7 years. In addition, they offered both a men-of-color and a women-of-color conference for students and we offered grants for faculty who designed research or a program that focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

2. NADOHE, a national organization that offers annual conferences for CDO’s, college presidents and vice presidents focusing on academic and student life. They also designed Standards of Professional Practice for Chief Diversity Officers. I have partnered with other colleagues at Union to jointly present workshops and lectures on programs we have designed at Union, including our year long certification course on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for employees.

3. LADO focused specifically on the DEI needs of liberal arts colleges. They have established partnerships with large research institutions to bring to their attention the quality of teaching positions and research offered at small liberal’s arts. In addition, they also bring graduate students, undergraduate students together as well as faculty to conferences to share their accomplishments and research on DEI work.

Our participation in these organizations enhanced the work we were doing at the College around DEI initiatives. Small liberal arts colleges had to learn quickly that you can bring people with diverse backgrounds to the campus, but if the mission of the college does not focus on inclusion, where employees and students feel as if they belonged on the campus, then the retention rates would drop. In addition, it would affect morale across all areas of the college. At the same time colleges needed to examine equity issues – in salary, in responsibilities of employees, and in employment and student evaluation and promotion decisions. As well as equity issues in student grades, the impact on their personal life and their graduation rates.

Union College has accomplished a lot with moving the DEI initiatives for the campus community. Under President Ainlay - the new position of CDO and the office of Diversity and Inclusion were established. The college provided adequate resources to the department and designed the new position of Multicultural Affairs Director. During my 14 years as CDO, Union College has been recognized by the Insight Into Diversity Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award. Union College is the only liberal arts college to have received that award seven consecutive years. We cannot rest on our laurels, there is still more work to do. In my experience, I have seen improvements at the college: The Board is more diverse and aware of our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and supports our commitment to this work; The faculty and staff are taking advantage of opportunities to learn and improve their DEI skills and sensitivity to these issues; and our students are more vocal on their needs and appreciative of our responses to their needs. But there are still challenges ahead for the college as with other institutions such as– how are we addressing Black Lives Matter, the needs of DACA students, the increase hate crimes in our country and in our communities, the increase anti-Semitism and attacks on spiritual settings, and hate towards our LGBTQIA+ community, and having more attention to details for meeting those in our communities accessibility needs. I am certain that with the recent (2020) increase in the gender and racial diversity in Senior Staff, Union College will continue to prosper in their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. I now serve as the inaugural Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Franklin and Marshall College, PA. I have learned a lot from my work and social experiences at Union College and am proud of our accomplishments. If you notice, in that previous sentence I said the words "our accomplishments" --- diversity, equity and inclusion is everyone's responsibility. This work would not have been successful if it was not for the support, partnership and resources provided by the Board of Trustees, Senior Leadership, faculty, staff, student and alumni of the College. I am delighted to be working at another liberal arts college who has placed their priorities of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, as part of their mission, vision and strategic planning for the campus community. I hope to teach, learn and grow in my new experiences. GRETCHEL L. HATHAWAY

Location - URL

belaira@union.edu