President Anthony Marx has taken a step toward promoting diversity by appointing Professor of English and Black Studies Rhonda Cobham-Sander to the position of special assistant to the president for diversity.
Cobham-Sander will work closely with Marx, other administrators and the faculty in an effort to help the College improve the way it deals with a range of issues involving diversity. Cobham-Sander's new position involves not only helping the affirmative action office to run existing programs, but also working with departments to increase the diversity of applicants vying for faculty positions.
Marx believes Cobham-Sander will be able to communicate well with her fellow faculty members. "Cobham-Sander [is] taking responsibility for the faculty component of affirmative action," Marx said. He added that faculty hiring and promotion are complicated processes, but are ones that faculty understand particularly well. "Therefore, having a [faculty member] to talk to her colleagues would be most likely … to ensure that we have minority candidates for [all] positions that are available and so that we can make sure those candidates are given every possible consideration," said Marx. "Amherst College is at the very top of the list in terms of percentage of the faculty who have come from diverse backgrounds, though I'm not satisfied by that-we can still do better."
The opportunity to enhance the College's faculty is just part of Cobham-Sander's goal. "Recruitment is only one part of the equation," she said. "Amherst has done very well in terms of the range of courses on issues of race and gender that we offer. The next step is to make these issues present in such a way that encourages all our students to feel supported when they pursue these interests." By the end of her term as special assistant to the president, Cobham-Sander said she hopes to have changed the way students and professors think about their roles at the College.
Although the presence of racial and ethnic diversity is crucial to the academic and social environment of the College, Cobham-Sander said she would like to see more than just an increase in the number of students of color. "Diversity is not just about affirmative action or the representation of minorities on the faculty; it is about our way of thinking and how we teach and live together," she said.
In her 18 years at the College, Cobham-Sander has seen developments in the way both race and sexuality are taught. From the beginning of her time at the College, Cobham-Sander has been involved in both shaping courses for the women and gender studies department and rethinking goals for the Black studies department.
"It has been wonderful to see issues of gender and sexuality become something that is addressed across all departments," she said. Cobham-Sander believes that Black studies at the College have led to a similar resurgence of interest in issues of race across the curriculum. "It is gratifying to see how many other departments have become involved in the enterprise," she said.
Through both her teaching and her new work as special assistant to the president for diversity, Cobham-Sander says that her ultimate goal is to contribute to creating a community in which students feel comfortable exploring.
The College is also promoting diversity through the position of ombudsman, which was filled by Hermenia Gardner until she retired last fall. Ruth Thornton will take over for Gardner.
President Marx described an ombudsman as someone who is somewhat independent and who staff, faculty and students feel comfortable approaching if they have concerns about ways in which the College operates, in terms of diversity or in other areas.
Thornton will have an office in Valentine Dining Hall, which Marx hopes will be a place students will feel comfortable approaching her with problems in order to keep channels of communication open.