Dear Colleagues:
Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar, Vice Provost for Diversity, informed us that he has decided to return to the faculty beginning in August 2014. Jeffrey made many important contributions to the diversity program at the University of Connecticut. In his role, he worked with others across campus to initiate a variety of programs to enhance a culture of diversity at UConn. Jeffrey launched the first in-residence Pre-doctoral/Post-MFA program, as well as helped develop the Recruitment Ambassador Program for new faculty and staff. With the Graduate School, he created “Recruit UConn” to attract excellent graduate students to our faculty search pools. Jeffrey also obtained a multi-year foundation grant for students engaged in academic leadership. We are grateful to Jeffrey for his leadership and service, and wish him great success as he reengages his research and teaching. We know his colleagues and students will welcome his return.
With this development, we are at a critical juncture to reimagine and reinvigorate our diversity programs to match the aspirations in the academic plan. While we take time to think carefully about our goals with respect to diversity and how best to reach them, we’ve asked Assistant Vice Provost Dana Wilder, who has worked closely with Jeffrey over the past year, to oversee ongoing diversity programs and efforts.
In addition, later this summer we will convene a taskforce, chaired by Dana Wilder, to focus on developing a broad set of recommendations about how to most effectively articulate, operationalize, and advance the University’s diversity agenda. The goal of the taskforce will be to challenge us with new ideas, innovative approaches, programmatic proposals, and structural recommendations that can inform our decisions about what strategies to pursue and how to organize around them.
Please join us in thanking both Jeffrey and Dana for their service, and we look forward to collaborating broadly with the University community as we consider how to attain excellence in this important area.
Best,
Mun Y. Choi Sally M. Reis Amy K. Donahue
Provost Vice Provost Vice Provost
For more information, contact: Office of the Provost at provost@uconn.edu