Despite telling Madison365 in January that there was no plan to restructure the Divistion of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievment following the removal of its leader, the University of Wisconsin announced today that the division will “sunset as a freestanding division.”
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced the change in an email to staff and students on Wednesday.
Mnookin noted that DDEEA “has been the home for a set of scholarship-linked student support activities that serve approximately 5% of our student body.” She said those programs will be moved to the Division for Teaching and Learning. Employee support functions will move to the Office of Human Resources, and data collection activities will move to Data, Academic Planning and Institutional Research.
Mnookin said existing cohort-based student support programs such as the Center for Educational Opportunity, First Wave, McNair Scholars, Mercile J. Lee Scholars, Office of Experiential Learning and NDGNS, PEOPLE, and POSSE will continue. “Scholarships awarded to current and incoming students as part of these programs will not be impacted in any way by the organizational changes,” Mnookin wrote, but did not say whether scholarships will continue at the same levels moving forward.
Mnookin said a working group led by former Provost Charles Isbell made a number of recommendations to support student success, which led her to reorganize existing administrative structures. This will include consolidating efforts focused on student well-being, involvement and belonging within Student Affairs; all academic support in the Division for Teaching and Learning; and all financial support programs in the Office of Student Financial Aid.
A new office within Student Affairs serving first-generation students and students with financial need will open during the next academic year, Mnookin said. Additionally, University Housing will report to Student Affairs as well as the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration.
Mnookin wrote that “a small number of duplicative non-student-facing positions in administrative and event support and communications” would be eliminated.
In January, DDEEA director Lavar Charleston was removed from the leadership of the division and placed in a back-up position after an internal review “revealed areas of concern about financial operations and fiscal judgments in the division,” Mnookin said at the time. At that time, DDEEA was moved under Isbell, which was “different from a restructuring, which is not planned,” UW spokesman John Lucas wrote in an email in January.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
