The search for a permanent Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion continues, but already, B. Afeni McNeely Cobham, the new Associate Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion, has been on the job for almost three months.
Dr. McNeely Cobham brings 25 years of experience in higher education to her role at the College. Although this appointment marks her first time as a full time diversity officer, she has previously performed administrative responsibilities as a faculty member at various institutions.
Here at Conn, she is working on the development of a nondiscrimination policy that would apply to faculty, staff and students, a document that she described to the Voice as a “masterpiece in progress.” According to the College’s website, at present the three groups have separate policies that they adhere to, which comply “with federal and state legislation and regulations regarding nondiscrimination.” Explaining why such a policy is necessary and what it entails, Dean Cobham said, “the climate of higher education present day across the country calls for an effective document, where in short it simply says: we are in an environment where our ideas and perspectives should be valued and heard, but we also have to adhere to some form of civility.”
Dean Cobham also sits on several college committees; she describes her role on them as ensuring “that there are considerations given to groups that may fall off the radar because they are not necessarily part of the majority culture in some way.” She highlighted her involvement with one committee that is working to “fill in the gaps for” first-generation students, students whose parents or guardians have not attended a four-year institution.
“They are the first in their families to make that wonderful
transition, but when you’re the first in the family oftentimes you don’t have information around how to fill out a FAFSA form or what orientation might feel like,” she said.
Besides her role as a college administrator, Dean Cobham has also had success as an academic with expertise in educational policy studies and hip-hop culture, which she said is “a big leap, but it exists nonetheless.” She has written a chapter for a textbook about how hip-hop culture influences issues around oppression and identity formation, and developed the Sankofa lecture series, a conference about hip-hop. She described her research as “the best of both worlds, I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and hip-hop was very much a part of my life and influence and shaped a lot of who I am as a person, scholar and administrator.”
Dean Cobham’s research also informs her work. She sees aspects of hip-hop culture in how students engage with each other; “to give the most polarizing [example], one time I had to deal with a situation where students were accused of being racially insensitive because they were singing the lyrics to a song that had the n-word. [While] racial insensitivity certainly was a factor, and we had to do some education around why that would be problematic and also why not, I thought it left a great opportunity to have a conversation around art and the cutoff point for thinking about language and the appropriate way to use it.”
Such experiences are likely to inform her work here at Conn as well, since the new discrimination policy will be about these very same issues.
Meanwhile the search for the other half of the “dynamic duo,” in Dean Cobham’s words, in the Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion continues. In an e-mail sent to the college community on Feb. 16, Dean of the Faculty Abigail van Slyck and Associate Professor of Education Dana Wright, the co-chairs of the search committee reported on their progress. According to the e-mail, a job offer had been made to one of the finalists who was brought to campus in November, but that finalist chose to remain at their current institution. The search committee felt that, “while the other finalists were quite capable, neither of them seemed to offer just the right fit for our campus.”
Earlier this semester, the committee identified two new finalists, one of whom is the current interim dean, David Canton. The other finalist later chose to remain in her current position. According to the e-mail the committee is identifying new finalists, and will review applications again in early March.
Members of the college community are encouraged to inform their “professional contacts” about the search, and to forward any names that they feel might be “particularly effective in this role.” What is certain about the search is that it has already proven to be a long and difficult process, and it will be a relief when a permanent dean is announced. •
