Search continues for associate provost for equity and inclusion

A committee of several students and staff has narrowed down the internal application pool to these two candidates.

This week, several interviews with the finalists for the first Associate Provost for Equity and Inclusion will take place. Two sessions allow Drake students to attend and provide feedback on the candidates.

“Anyone can come to that at all. They’ll do a short 20 minute presentation and the rest of the time will be question and answer from the audience,” said Tony Tyler, the director of student engagement, equity and inclusion in student life.

Darcie Vandegrift was interviewed on Tuesday. At 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 2 it will be Erin Lain’s turn in Sussman Theater.

The candidates are then subjected to a full day of interviews with various strategic groups and the provost, Sue Mattison, as well as the special session open to students at 4 p.m.

Tyler said that the open interviews have been planned to get the campus’ input on each candidate.

At each interview session, students will be able to give feedback by filling out an online survey. The surveys will be open over the weekend and closed for review on Monday.

That data will then be used to make a recommendation to the provost.

“I think these will be two hours that students could invest in something that will have an immediate effect on them both in curricular and co-curricular ways,” said Jill Allen, a member of the committee and Assistant Professor of Psychology. “If they were to come to one or both of these sessions, they could expect, in the first part of the session, to really hear the candidate’s mission, top priorities and goals.”

Many members of the committee stressed how important they believe this position is to the Drake campus.

“(This associate provost could) really be, in some regard, the point person who is able to know exactly which group, which resource on campus, which office to help to coordinate some of these efforts because right now we have individual level and interpersonal change,” Allen said.

“If we really want institutional change, long lasting policy change, we need someone in a position where that’s what they’re focused on.”

As Allen mentioned, another popular reason for supporting the position so strongly was the current lack of an administrative level position whose job is to promote institutional level change.

“Right now on Drake’s campus, everyone who is working to make it more diverse and... more inclusive are doing it outside of their (primary) job,” said sophomore Deshauna Carter, another member of the committee and the student equity and inclusion senator. “I think that giving this to someone whose sole purpose on Drake’s campus is to work towards that will make it go so much faster than people like Tony Tyler or Jennifer

Harvey who are doing these things outside of what they are already supposed to be doing.”

Several committee members said that they were looking for members of the Drake community who were already making change on campus so that they could start work immediately. Carter had a few ideas as to what kinds of projects the new associate provost position could deal with.

“I definitely would hope that one thing they would do is start making a scholarship fund for marginalized identities because a lot of other universities do offer that and Drake doesn’t,” Carter said. “Having them work towards that would be amazing. I think that working towards Drake’s curriculum having more classes in it that will help students learn about marginalized identities.”

Women’s March brings message to Des Moines, attracts students

Elise Bauernfeind Contributing Writer elise.bauernfeind@drake.edu @elisej29

On Jan. 21, over 600 women’s marches took place across all across the world to promote and bring attention to women’s rights. At the march held in Des Moines, over 26,000 people attended, with several Drake students among them.

Sophomore Claire Franksen said she decided to attend because the march stood for many things she is passionate about.

“It’s not about being antiTrump,” Franksen said. “It’s about supporting women.” attendance.

She said it was important to her that the day was not about one issue, or issues at all, but instead a celebration of women and women’s rights. She wanted all women to feel comfortable attending regardless of their stances on individual issues.

“I felt that, as a white woman, it’s my responsibility to use my privilege for the better good,” Franksen said.

Senior Hannah Bovard also attended the march in hopes of using her privilege for good.

“I really wanted to show my solidarity and support of all different groups of women, whether that’s trans women, native women, women of color, women with disabilities or anyone else who doesn’t feel as supported or represented,” Bovard said.

“The front steps of the Capitol were packed, all the way down to the street where the Capitol lawn meets East Village,” Dietz said.

“Before we marched, there was an announcement that the march had completely circled the capitol. There were so many people that we could not all fit on the streets around the Capitol, so we had to wait our turn to march.”

All three women said that they felt a strong sense of community at the march.

“It felt like this entire community was coming together,” Franksen said. “Then, looking at all the marches worldwide and realizing that so many people were doing the same things and standing up for the same things, I just constantly wanted to cry tears of joy and happiness, but also kind of sad that we have to march.”

Bovard said she felt the strongest sense of community when marchers left the sidewalks and flooded the streets.

“It was like this huge traffic jam, but it moved really fast,” Bovard said. “It was just really empowering to see how many people came out there.” had to do with children. Dietz said she loved seeing children marching with signs that they had made themselves.

Dietz said she was not only inspired by the amount of people who attended, but the diversity of those in attendance.

“It was incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by people of all ages, genders, races, classes and feeling similar feelings,” Dietz said.

“A little boy held up a sign that was as big as him that said, ‘Trump is drama for my mama,’” Dietz said. “It was so sad that these children will have to grow up in a Trump presidency, but so amazing that they have parents that would bring them to marches and would tell them that this is not okay.”

Bovard was also inspired by the children who were in attendance, but also by the elderly women who came out and marched.

“There was such a big age diversity there,” Bovard said. “It was really powerful because there were really old women who were there, but there were also babies who couldn’t even talk, and it was just all these people showing up (that) was so awesome.

For Franksen, the most powerful experience was participating in a collective moment of silence as she was leaving.

PROTESTERS of all ages were on the steps of the Iowa Capitol the day after the inauguration to make their voices heard.

Senior Elena Dietz said she felt overwhelmed and empowered by the sheer number of people in

Dietz and Bovard both said that the most profound and powerful moments of their days

“We took part in this moment of silence, which was really powerful,” Franksen said. “Everyone had their heads bowed, and I kind of looked up and I looked around and actually took in what was happening. It was like all of these people were here for the same thing. It was like a pure moment of silence when we could have been yelling, but we were all silent in solidarity. It was just a moment to just think and appreciate this day. It was insane.”