The University of Missouri s diversity director on Thursday apologized to the Faculty Council for communication missteps in a plan to restructure social justice centers on campus. I certainly take ownership over the way this rollout happened and particularly for our failures in communication, said Maurice Gipson, vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity.
The restructuring plan has been halted in order to gather feedback from stakeholders, he said. July 1 is no longer a target date for implementing the plan. We ve put this on pause right now, just to listen, Gipson said.
Campus protests developed when information leaked that a restructuring of the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center, LGBTQ Resource Center, Multicultural Center and Women s Center was planned and that the center coordinators may lose their jobs.
Activist group Mizzou 600 organized a protest on April 29 against the future implementation of the MU Department of Social Justice restructuring plan.
The demonstration started on the steps of Jesse Hall, where speakers began listing the ways the Department of Social Justice had aided them. Two unnamed MU staff members followed the demonstration, stating that their purpose was to ensure the protest was safe.
Following their beginning chants and opening statements on the steps of Jesse Hall, demonstrators walked inside to continue the protest. The demonstrators continued to chant and give statements regarding the restructuring. Staff observed the demonstration from the upper level of Jesse Hall.
In a Monday Zoom meeting with staff from MU’s social justice centers, Maurice Gipson, the vice chancellor of inclusion, diversity and equity, assured attendees that an upcoming realignment will not directly result in the loss of their jobs.
“That’s just inaccurate,” Gipson said in the meeting. “No one is losing their job on June 30. That was never the intent. That was never the case … It was our intent to no longer have coordinators as the title, no coordinator in the title, but to shift to the different model where we have assistant directors and specialists.”
Social media rumors circulated, primarily on Twitter, after leaks from Thursday’s meeting suggested that the coordinators of MU’s social justice centers were being cut from their positions on June 30.
He said claims circulating on social media that all staff members at the centers will be let go and that the centers themselves would be eliminated are false. It is “absolutely not true that we’re getting rid of the centers,” and the university is “absolutely committed to the resources these centers provide,” Basi said.
The Columbia Missourianreported that the plan aims to raise the number of full-time staff members in the centers from 10 to 15.
The private message outlining the restructuring plan said the university would move away from “the current holistic identity-based coordinators” to new “task-oriented positions.” The new positions will span multiple centers and include individual staff members in charge of events and programming for the centers, overseeing student staff members, and managing center training programs. The
Updated at 1:45 p.m. to include details from a staff meeting about the reorganization.
Coordinators at MUâs Department of Social Justice centers were told last week their positions would no longer exist as of July 1, part of what an administrator called a ârestructuringâ and âreimaginingâ of the department.
The overhaul will see the department move away from individually functioning centers focused on providing specific resources to students to a âcollectiveâ and âcommunityâ focus. MU will conduct open searches to fill new positions in place of the currently existing coordinator roles. The physical resource center spaces will remain on campus.