Rowan faculty and staff are questioning the university’s DEI commitments after three leaders of color left

Last semester, three leaders overseeing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at Rowan University announced their departure.

And that led to concerns at the state university in New Jersey.

“Having three powerful women of color simultaneously resign from Rowan against a national backdrop of backlash against DEI and critical race theory makes us understandably concerned about the future of DEI at Rowan,” 180 faculty, staff, administrators, and students wrote in a recent letter to the president and provost. “And while Rowan has made strides since the inception of the Division of DEI, ... we are only at the beginning of what will be a marathon.”

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They questioned whether the university would maintain the DEI division and replace Monika Williams Shealey, its former senior vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion, who left to become dean of Temple University’s College of Education and Human Development.

Rowan named Penny McPherson-Myers, who was vice president of the division under Shealey, its new leader, but did not give her Shealey’s senior title.

Rowan’s provost, Tony Lowman, said in an interview Wednesday that Rowan, where nearly a third of the student body come from underrepresented groups, would keep the four-year-old division and its funding and that McPherson-Myers had been elevated to sit on the president’s cabinet. It’s unclear whether a second leader will be hired for the division, he said. But the university is looking to replace the other two employees who left, he said.

They include: Dawn Singleton, who had been senior director for student success and inclusion programs and is now vice president of student transition, access, and inclusion at Syracuse University; and Yvonne Torruella Ortiz, who was director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine and has taken a similar position at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

The university also is forming a task force with representatives from across Rowan that will discuss the school’s next steps in diversity, equity, and inclusion, Lowman said. The group, once selected, will begin its work this fall, he said.

“We want to create a truly inclusive environment where everybody can feel like this can be their home and they feel safe and valued,” he said.

Rowan, like other schools, has experienced hate incidents. In September 2022, a racial slur was found on the dorm room door of a Black student, though the three men involved later told police they didn’t know the race of the student when they scrawled the hateful message on her door. They were not charged with a bias crime.

Bill Freind, president of the university senate, who signed the letter, said its aim was to make sure the university’s commitment remains, and that after meeting with Lowman and Rowan President Ali A. Houshmand, he believes it will.

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“If anything, we are going to strengthen that commitment going forward,” said Freind, an English professor.

Amy Woodworth, an assistant professor of writing arts who coauthored the letter, said she also is confident that the university will move in the right direction.

“I’m going in with high hopes,” she said.

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Shealey started the diversity, equity, and inclusion division at Rowan four years ago. Previously, she had been the school’s dean of the College of Education.

When new people are hired, some of their responsibilities may change, Lowman said. Ortiz’s role, for example, will be expanded to include Rowan’s Virtua College of Medicine and Life Sciences, which includes the osteopathic medical school and two other schools. The college was formed in 2021. The university’s soon-to-be-built veterinary school also will fall under someone’s areas of responsibility, he said.

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“It’s a great time to rethink the things we want to do on our campus,” he said, “not remove them, rethink them and try to do them better.”

One thing the university might do is begin requiring its Rowan 101 course for freshmen — it’s currently an elective — and embed diversity content into its curriculum, he said.

In their letter, the faculty, staff, and students said the university should create “accountability measures” to gauge the impact of DEI efforts and better communicate with the Rowan community.

They also called for the university to release the results of its recent campus climate survey, which asked questions about diversity, equity, and inclusion. The group called on the school to “engage in open-minded and honest reflection about its findings, and adopt the recommendations made by the Division’s strategic priority committees.”

Lowman said the results, which were gathered until just before commencement, are still being compiled but would be released when they are ready.