Adrienne Dixson, one of the candidates for director of OU’s new Gateway to Belonging course, has withdrawn from the search.
According to a Thursday email from Joshua Nelson, chair of the director search committee, Dixson’s webinar on April 23 has been canceled, and all other webinars will proceed as scheduled.
Dixson, a professor of critical race theory and education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was scheduled to appear in the final webinar as one of four candidates for the position.
In an April 5 email, Nelson wrote the course is intended to help students build an “intercultural awareness” that will help them understand different perspectives. The future director will receive a faculty position, supervise the curriculum and lead the instructional faculty team, Nelson wrote.
Administrators emphasized the importance of diversity training after screenshots of an OU freshman’s racist social media posts from high school surfaced Tuesday.
“While the university implemented such training in hopes of eliminating events like these, we aren’t naïve enough to think that such instances will instantly dissipate,” a statement from the university read. “But we do know that this act, like those before it, is not representative of who we are as an OU community, and it underscores the need for our prioritization of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at OU. OU’s Strategic Plan puts this work at its center, and we will continue our efforts in making OU a place of true belonging for all.”
Adrienne Carter-Sowell, associate head of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University, was featured in the first candidate forum Tuesday. In it, Carter-Sowell discussed her research on helping people feel more included, which she said demonstrated the importance of the Gateway to Belonging class.
“I understand that (while) universities want this success, they've never put a name to it,” Carter-Sowell said. “This program, this course and this opportunity is putting a name to it, and I would like to put my name to it.”
Meta G. Carstarphen, a faculty member in the strategic communications department of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication and another candidate for the position, is scheduled for a webinar at 2 p.m. April 15. According to her faculty page, her focus is “the intentional use of mediated communication to create transformative, collaborative and diversified social change.” Carstarphen is the first tenured African American professor in the college.
The final candidate, Akilah Carter-Francique, the executive director for the Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change and an associate professor in the Department of African American Studies at San Jose State University, will speak at a webinar at 2 p.m. April 19. She focuses on the “intersection of sport, society and social justice that is inclusive of issues of diversity, social movements, and the dynamics of social change and development,” according to her faculty page.
