Dr. Damon Williams talks about UW diversity programs reorganization
PEOPLE on the Move
PEOPLE on the Move
Provost and they were supportive. So we are very excited about that.”
While some may look upon this as a radical shift, according to Williams, it will restructure the UW’s diversity efforts to give it the
capacity that other departments and university’s have.
“In moving these things, some persons might say ‘Moving everything into one place, is that a good thing or a bad thing,’” Williams
said. “I’ve had the chance to visit over 200 institutions. I’ve surveyed every institution in the country. I probably wrote more about this
topic than anyone else anywhere. So I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. A couple of things that I usually say to people who raise
that question is ‘Number one, we’re just trying to create strategy structure alignment.’ You have some leadership here in my office. We’
re developing a big picture strategy. We think that having some of our capacity aligned directly to that strategy of leadership makes
some sense. It makes sense in the same way that it does for the business school or any other area where you have capacity.”
“We would never have a vice-president for enrollment and then not have the admissions office report to the enrollment office,”
Williams continued. “You would never have a dean of the business school have the marketing academic department report to someone
else. But when it comes to diversity because of the history and the way things evolved, oftentimes that is what our infrastructure looks
like. It’s not the only way to get things done, but it is a part of the solution. So we made the decision to create a more powerful
alignment, which makes us more similar to some other institutions across the country.”
At the beginning, don’t expect sudden changes to occur in the programs. Williams’ first priority is to ensure that everything is up
and running under the new structure. “Whenever you do a reorganization, you have to stabilize. Stabilization means everything from
‘we have to make some hires’ to ‘are some people going to change offices’ to’ who comes to help you with your computer when your
computer goes down.’ So we have to stabilize.”
The second priority is to establish a new divisional cohesiveness and values. “You put these pieces together in a division and
now you have to ask yourself ‘Where are we trying to go,’” Williams said. “’What are our principles and practices? What do we value?’
You have to pull together a vision and you have to do that in a way that involves a lot of people who are on the ground doing the work. I
can’t go off and do that by myself. I can’t go off and do that with just directors. I have to do that with the community.”
After the divisional identity has been established, then the division has to decide how it will proceed. “You bring things together
and then you look at the unique strengths and opportunity areas of the different units,” Williams said. “What are the strength and
opportunity areas in the PEOPLE Program? What are the strength and opportunity areas of Equity and Diversity? Then you enter into
conversation and you get the information and then you start looking at ways to strengthen and optimize what folks are doing such that
over time, you’re able to have a stronger, more cohesive, more dynamic set of possibilities and say ‘That’s where we’re going right
now.’”
Next issue: The impact of change
While some may look upon this as a radical shift, according to Williams, it will restructure the UW’s diversity efforts to give it the
capacity that other departments and university’s have.
“In moving these things, some persons might say ‘Moving everything into one place, is that a good thing or a bad thing,’” Williams
said. “I’ve had the chance to visit over 200 institutions. I’ve surveyed every institution in the country. I probably wrote more about this
topic than anyone else anywhere. So I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. A couple of things that I usually say to people who raise
that question is ‘Number one, we’re just trying to create strategy structure alignment.’ You have some leadership here in my office. We’
re developing a big picture strategy. We think that having some of our capacity aligned directly to that strategy of leadership makes
some sense. It makes sense in the same way that it does for the business school or any other area where you have capacity.”
“We would never have a vice-president for enrollment and then not have the admissions office report to the enrollment office,”
Williams continued. “You would never have a dean of the business school have the marketing academic department report to someone
else. But when it comes to diversity because of the history and the way things evolved, oftentimes that is what our infrastructure looks
like. It’s not the only way to get things done, but it is a part of the solution. So we made the decision to create a more powerful
alignment, which makes us more similar to some other institutions across the country.”
At the beginning, don’t expect sudden changes to occur in the programs. Williams’ first priority is to ensure that everything is up
and running under the new structure. “Whenever you do a reorganization, you have to stabilize. Stabilization means everything from
‘we have to make some hires’ to ‘are some people going to change offices’ to’ who comes to help you with your computer when your
computer goes down.’ So we have to stabilize.”
The second priority is to establish a new divisional cohesiveness and values. “You put these pieces together in a division and
now you have to ask yourself ‘Where are we trying to go,’” Williams said. “’What are our principles and practices? What do we value?’
You have to pull together a vision and you have to do that in a way that involves a lot of people who are on the ground doing the work. I
can’t go off and do that by myself. I can’t go off and do that with just directors. I have to do that with the community.”
After the divisional identity has been established, then the division has to decide how it will proceed. “You bring things together
and then you look at the unique strengths and opportunity areas of the different units,” Williams said. “What are the strength and
opportunity areas in the PEOPLE Program? What are the strength and opportunity areas of Equity and Diversity? Then you enter into
conversation and you get the information and then you start looking at ways to strengthen and optimize what folks are doing such that
over time, you’re able to have a stronger, more cohesive, more dynamic set of possibilities and say ‘That’s where we’re going right
now.’”
Next issue: The impact of change
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 1 of 2
For members of the PEOPLE, Posse, First Wave and the Center for Educational Equal
Opportunity, their programs won’t appear to be much different than when they left last May.
PEOPLE will still be in the Middleton Building on Linden Drive and First Wave will still be
housed in Bascom Hall. Yet the programs have undergone a foundational change this
summer that will shape their future development and direction.
These programs, formerly housed in the UW School of Education, are now housed within the
Office of the Vice-Provost for Diversity and Climate, the office of Dr. Damon Williams. The
move was made after a year-long review of the programs and other similar programs across
the country.
“We began to look around and ask a lot of questions,” Williams said in an interview with
The Capital City Hues. “We got a lot of people involved. We did a lot of national benchmarking
determining what the state of the art is at different institutions. I was able to borrow from a lot
of research that I’ve done in this area and a lot of writing I’ve done in this area and bring that
to the fore. And over time of looking at promising practices, what is out there in the research,
asking questions on campus, getting people engaged, we finally settled into some changes
that we thought made some sense. We presented those changes to the Chancellor and to the
Part 1 of 2
For members of the PEOPLE, Posse, First Wave and the Center for Educational Equal
Opportunity, their programs won’t appear to be much different than when they left last May.
PEOPLE will still be in the Middleton Building on Linden Drive and First Wave will still be
housed in Bascom Hall. Yet the programs have undergone a foundational change this
summer that will shape their future development and direction.
These programs, formerly housed in the UW School of Education, are now housed within the
Office of the Vice-Provost for Diversity and Climate, the office of Dr. Damon Williams. The
move was made after a year-long review of the programs and other similar programs across
the country.
“We began to look around and ask a lot of questions,” Williams said in an interview with
The Capital City Hues. “We got a lot of people involved. We did a lot of national benchmarking
determining what the state of the art is at different institutions. I was able to borrow from a lot
of research that I’ve done in this area and a lot of writing I’ve done in this area and bring that
to the fore. And over time of looking at promising practices, what is out there in the research,
asking questions on campus, getting people engaged, we finally settled into some changes
that we thought made some sense. We presented those changes to the Chancellor and to the
Dr. Damon Williams, UW vice-provost
for diversity and climate speaks at the
2010 UW PEOPLE Program recognition
luncheon.
for diversity and climate speaks at the
2010 UW PEOPLE Program recognition
luncheon.
