University of Kentucky expands role of its diversity office, adding oversight over millions
The University of Kentucky’s top leadership team is being expanded to increase diversity among students and staff, President Eli Capilouto announced in an email on Monday.
The university’s Office of Institutional Diversity will get an increased budget and increased responsibilities. The office budget will grow from $3.1 million to $19.3 million — largely because the university is adding oversight of the $14 million-per-year Parker Scholarship that is typically given to minority students. The Faculty Diversity Fund of $2.75 million — used to recruit more diverse employees — will also be added to the office’s charge.
The Parker Scholarship was already at $14 million prior to the move, but UK spokesman Jay Blanton added that the scholarship had grown significantly from $8 million in recent years. The faculty fund has been increasing by $500,000 annually over the past few years, Blanton said. The fund has grown from about $390,000 in the 2015-16 school year, and it continues to grow.
“As Kentucky’s university, we cannot afford to think only about surviving. We must commit ourselves to thriving. We must position UK now for the future — with the goal of ensuring that one day COVID-19 is a page in a history book and racial injustice seems as ancient and antithetical to who we are as slavery,” Capilouto wrote to the campus in an email Monday afternoon.
The existing Office of Community Engagement will also begin work to strengthen relationships with communities of color in Lexington and around the region, Capilouto announced.
George C. Wright, the interim vice president for institutional diversity, will continue to report to Capilouto as a senior adviser after the university fills the institutional diversity position via a national search.
Capilouto also added three new positions that will report directly to him.
Capilouto has been criticized previously for having very few top Black administrators, and the changes would increase the number.
Kirsten Turner, the associate provost for academic and student affairs, will become the vice president for student success and will lead a new unit that will have “a greater emphasis on student success from recruitment through enrollment and, ultimately, graduation.”
Nancy Cox, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, will add the role of vice president for land-grant engagement. Joe Reed, currently the chief auditor, will become the chief accountability officer and audit executive and will also report directly to the president.
The announcement comes a few days after the university announced another record enrollment growth. Over the weekend, UK senior and activist Khari Gardner said he felt the university retaliated against him by beginning a student code of conduct investigation after he and the student group, Movement for Black Lives, posted banners around campus describing racist actions taken against students of color on the campus.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 4:56 PM.