Jackson to leave Vassar for Kentucky

Brian Farkas News Editor

President Catharine Bond Hill announced in an all-campus e-mail Monday, Jan. 28, that Dean of the College Judy Jackson will be leaving Vassar to become Vice President for Institutional Diversity at the University of Kentucky (UK). Located in Lexington, Ky., UK has over 19,000 undergraduate students and over 7,000 graduate students, in addition to a staff of nearly 12,000 employees.

In her new post, Jackson will be responsible for advising the University’s president and provost on how policy decisions will affect diversity and tolerance. Jackson will be UK’s senior administrator responsible for promoting efforts among faculty, staff and students to improve diversity.

UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. and Provost Kumble R. Subbaswamy created the new institutional diversity position as part of the University’s larger goal of becoming one of the nation’s top 20 public research universities.

UK has been searching for candidates since January 2007 and originally wanted to fill the position by July. The search was put on temporary hold in October after five of the initial candidates either pulled out or were not selected.

Jackson visited the University on Wednesday, Jan. 9 for an open forum with students, faculty and administrators. “It’s like a marriage,” Jackson said in reference to diversity issues. “You don’t say ‘I do’ and that’s it. You have to keep working on it for its life.” As part of the job, she plans to hold frank dialogues with UK students, faculty and staff to determine the issues facing the University, and how those problems could be dealt with.

“There will be tears, there will be anger, there will be moments when a person cannot say what they mean to say,” she said at the forum. She expressed desire to “make diversity more than a buzzword with little meaning.”

Because UK is so different from Vassar, Jackson believes that it will “demand a different diversity strategy than Vassar’s, [especially] because UK’s faculty and student demographics are very different.” UK’s student population is 88 percent caucasion.

Jackson has been Dean of the College at Vassar since 2004, and is also an Associate Professor of Education. A variety of departments and offices report to the Dean of the College, including multicultural services, Security and Campus Dining, among others. Prior to arriving at Vassar, Jackson had been Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at New York University and Executive Assistant to the President at Babson College. She also spent 11 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she served as Special Advisor to the Provost on Faculty Diversity. She completed her doctorate on faculty diversity at the Harvard School of Education, and diversity in higher education has been the focus of much of her academic work.

According to the KY Kernal, UK’s student newspaper, Jackson was overwhelmingly supported after her visit to campus. Chair of UK’s Vice President for Institutional Diversity Search Committee Carol Jordan was especially impressed by Jackson. “Jackson embodies what we searched for in both commitment and expertise and we were gratified by her willingness to explore the vice president for institutional diversity position,” said Jordan. “She was warmly received by the UK community during her campus visit and now enjoys a reputation here as an accomplished academic and a gifted voice for diversity.” Diversity will become a priority for UK in the coming years. “No university can prepare its students for success in a global economy if the campus itself does not mirror the diversity of the world into which students will graduate,” said Jordan.

For the past five years, Jackson co-led a workshop on faculty diversity with a research partner at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education. “About four months ago, I got an e-mail from a woman from Kentucky asking on behalf of the president and provost if she could have a conversation with me,” she said. “I thought that she probably wanted to invite me to give a presentation or consultation at UK.”

Instead, Jackson was asked to consider the vice president position. “I declined to apply but offered to talk with the search committee about the structure of the position, because my experience and research have shown that institutions usually don’t think carefully enough about or plan well for institutional diversity positions,” she said.

However, after meeting with the search committee, Jackson was once again contacted and urged to consider taking the position herself. During her recent visit to UK, she met with several administrators, including the president and the provost.

Jackson said that she has always tried to aim for positions that would allow her the most possible professional responsibility. In an interview for the Fall 2004 issue of the Vassar Alumni Quarterly, Jackson expressed interest in one day becoming a college president.

Last semester, Vassar began a regularly scheduled review of Jackson, as required by the College Governance. “My decision to visit UK had nothing to do with the Dean of the College review process,” she explained. “While there exists no perfect dean, I feel very good about what I have done at Vassar so far.”

Hill agreed. “I was really hoping that we could convince her to stay at Vassar,” said Hill in an e-mailed statement. “I’ve only been here 18 months, but it has been great working with her. I really think the Dean of the College’s job is one of the hardest jobs on campus…not everyone can do that. JJ does it extremely effectively.”

Jackson was offered the position late last week and informed Hill of her decision over the phone on Sunday night. “I don’t believe in ‘surprises’ to my superiors and have kept [Hill] informed of my career goals since her arrival here,” said Jackson. “She has shown respect and appreciation for me and my work as dean of the college as well as support for my career goals.”

Jackson, 58, will begin work on July 1 and will be paid an annual salary of $210,000 as compared her current $165,000 salary. Jackson is not the only senior officer stepping down in July; Dean of the Faculty Ronald Sharp, who has held the position for five years, will return to teaching in the English Department. Next fall, Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger will begin only her second year in that newly created position. Despite this, Hill was not concerned with the prospect of a fairly new administrative team.

“I think we will get through the transition without too much disruption to our processes,” said Hill, referring to the College’s long-term planning initiatives. “I’m really sorry Dean Jackson is leaving,” said Hill. “I’ve really liked working with her. In addition to her handling very difficult situations with expertise and compassion, she also brings pleasure and enjoyment to her job.”
The College Governance specifies the process by which a new Dean of the College is selected.

According to Hill, that process will begin immediately, despite the short time frame. “I’m not sure at this point whether we’ll be able to get someone in place for July 1. If not, we might have an interim dean,” she said.