MSCHE Pillars of Change
MSCHE Pillars of Change
Episode 7 - Dr. Havidán Rodriguez, President of the University at Albany
Dr. Havidán Rodríguez has a long and distinguished career in higher education and has been guiding SUNY at Albany (UAlbany) since 2017, accelerating UAlbany's success toward reaching its vision to be the nation's leading diverse public research university. However, Dr. Rodríguez's impact extends beyond UAlbany. In this episode of the MSCHE Pillars of Change Podcast, Dr. Jim Sunser, President of SUNY Genesee Community College and member of the MSCHE Executive committee, speaks with fellow MSCHE Executive Committee member Dr. Rodríguez about his leadership of SUNY's Hispanic Leadership Institute, which was created to support, retain, and foster the success of emerging Hispanic and Latinx leaders across the State University of New York (SUNY), the largest comprehensive university system in the United States.
Welcome to the Pillars of Change podcast presented by Middle States Commission on Higher Education. I'm Dr. Jim Sunser the president of SUNY Genesee Community College and a member of the MSCHE Executive Committee. I'd like to thank you for joining me for the commission's continuing series of podcasts focusing on topics of diversity, equity and inclusion. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education holds an important voice and space within the higher ed community. In this podcast series spotlights, highly effective institutional practices that have made a difference in the lives of our students through diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Dr. Havidan Rodriguez, the president of the University at Albany and a fellow MSCHE Executive Committee member. Dr. Rodriguez has a long and distinguished career in higher education and has been guiding UAlbany since 2017. As a national leader in the area of diversity and inclusion in higher education, He's currently accelerating UAlbany's success towards reaching its vision to be the nation's leading diverse public research university. But Dr. Rodriguez' impact extends beyond UAlbany. In addition to overseeing the implementation of UAlbany's institutional commitment to DEI, he also leads SUNY's Hispanic Leadership Institute, which was created to support, retain and foster the success of emerging Hispanics and Latinx leaders across the SUNY system. For those who've had the opportunity to join MSCHE at our virtual 2021 conference, you heard Dr. Rodriguez and others in the SUNY system on the efforts to transform campus cultures through a range of initiatives aimed at faculty and staff diversity and student success. Welcome, Dr. Rodriguez.
Dr. Havidan Rodriguez:Thank you very much, Jim. It's, uh, it's a pleasure to be with you today, uh, to address this critical and important issue of diversity, equity and inclusion. So thank you for the invitation and thanks to the Middle States, uh, Commission, uh, for organizing these critically important events. It's a pleasure to be here.
Dr. Jim Sunser:Well, thank you for joining us. We appreciate having time with you, you know, before we talk about your efforts at UAlbany and SUNY, I wanted to ask you if you talk a little bit about your perspective on how our conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion have shifted since the events of the summer of 2020 from the murder of George Floyd, to the massive demonstrations that followed. Have those events changed how we're talking about addressing issues around DEI on our campuses?
Dr. Havidan Rodriguez:You know, there, there are many dimensions, uh, to this question, right? But I would say that that overall, uh, we're seeing an increased, uh, engagement and participation in DEI conversations and more importantly, uh, a call to action to take action around issues of equity, inclusion, and social, uh, and racial justice. If you will. You know, if we look at institutions of higher education across the country, I think that in most of the overwhelming majority, uh, of institutions you'll find that there is at least in words, a strong commitment, uh, to diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the question is, how do you take those words? How do you take that philosophy and convert them into action, right, into strategic initiatives with real and concrete outcomes and impacts. And I think that as a consequence of, uh, since, uh, 2020, we've seen an increase, a call for action to really transform the way we as institutions of higher education are addressing these critical issues and really trying to, uh, better understand the importance of intersectionality, if you will. Right. Uh, for example, uh, uh, a few months ago I was in a Hispanic heritage month, uh, event focusing on the experiences of the Afro Latinx, uh, students and communities, right? AF uh, Latinos, Latinx, uh, groups are very, very diverse as you know of, but when you add the intersection of race, gender, sexual preference, then it becomes a much more engaging, uh, and much more complex conversation. So these are the kinds of conversations we want to encourage. These are the types of conversations we're seeing more and more of and bringing different perspectives and diverse perspectives. For example, here at, um, you Albany, not too long ago, we brought, uh, Anthony Ray Hinton, uh, to campus. As you know, he's the subject of the film, uh, Just Mercy. And he spent three decades on death row for a crime he did not commit. So Mr. Hinton addressed the subject of criminal justice reform. And as we know, communities of color are also, uh, disproportionately impacted by our criminal justice system. So understanding those issues and having a better, uh, perspective about how we work, deal, respond and develop concrete initiatives, uh, to really focus on these critical issues is, is critically important. So what I've seen, what we've seen, I think, and not only ity, but across the state and across the country are more student led conversations, uh, focused on actions, whether they would be student led vigils this past spring in response to bias, discrimination, and violence perpetrated against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. You know, the invasion of Ukraine. These are all calls to action. And, and that is very, very important. And of course, as you know, the, uh, you know, the, when we focus on the issues of our social and racial justice, this was also, uh, complicated by the, you know, our focus on not only the reckoning on race, but that this, uh, sort of, uh, coincided with the global pandemic and where we saw that, uh, systemic racism played a major, major issue in how, uh, COVID impacted, uh, communities of color. Actually, the university, uh, at Albany was asked by the New York State, uh, to lead a study on the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color. And, and, and what we saw right, as, as we were expecting is that communities of color not only had higher positivity rates, uh, they had higher, uh, hospitalization rates, higher mortality rates. And the question is why? And so as a institution here, we focused on developing an Institute for social and health equity, where we have interdisciplinary researchers focusing on these critical issues. So I think, yes, uh, we've seen some important change. Uh, COVID-19. Uh, the reckoning on race has changed us quite dramatically. It's been very emotional, has been very painful and very challenging, but we've also provided, it has also provided extraordinary opportunities, uh, to look at what are the issues, what are the challenges and the challenge before us is how do we cease the momentum to make sure that we make a difference?
Dr. Jim Sunser:Thank you. Very interesting. So we know higher education plays an important role in framing the conversation about DEI. Can you tell me what roles do you think higher education plays in enhancing and altering the conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion nationally, and also on our individual campuses and what are we doing within SUNY systems that may be a model for others to emulate in that area?
Dr. Havidan Rodriguez:So when we look at the role of higher education in, in this regard, you know, institutions play a diversity of very, very important roles to help us think, uh, about the implications of diversity, equity and inclusion and our roles, uh, within that paradigm. But I think our greatest contributions stem from three main assets. Uh, so let me name the three for you. First, we are, uh, continuously educating generations of students to become culturally competent, globally engaged students. So generation upon generation that graduate from institutions of higher education, you multiply UAlbany by SUNY Genesee by thousands of institutions of higher education across the country. We really can have transformative effects by, uh, educating engaged global citizens. Second is the wealth, uh, of expertise, research, scholarship, creative works and innovation that are produced by our faculty, right? Uh, in order to better understand the issues that impact, uh, institutions of education, but our communities throughout the country, in the space of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the third factor, uh, uh, that colleges and universities are anchor institutions for our communities. And so we have the power to convene, to support and influence our communities, uh, far beyond the walls of our campus. Actually, just this morning, I was at an event with the Capital District Latinos, uh, here in the Capital region, and the state of New York invested or provided a$1 million grant, uh, for the renovation of the, uh, of the, uh, uh, cultural empowerment and community engagement center for Capital District Latinos. And as we were there, uh, folks from CDL(Capital District Latinos) were talking to me about the role that some of our faculty staff and students at the university at Albany have played, uh, with CDL. So clearly we have a great responsibility and an opportunity to work, uh, with our community. So students, faculty, staff, and the work that they develop as well, uh, as our work with, with the, with our communities, it turns out it to be really a moral responsibility or moral imperative, if you will, to continue to engage in these types of, of conversations. And, you know, you, you mentioned SUNY, uh, and as you know, for decades, SUNY has been a great, uh, uh, champion of diversity equity and inclusion. Let me just mention a, a few examples, uh, for the audience, uh, for example, our EOP program(Educational Opportunity Program) was founded more than 50 years ago, uh, within the SUNY system. And this is for, uh, first generation students, many of them from underrepresented, low income, uh, communities, and this program has really had transformational power. Uh, EOP students have higher persistence and graduation rates, uh, at significantly higher rates than the general student, uh, population. Another great example of systemwide programs is PRODiG, which started about three years ago. And PRODiG stands for promoting recruitment opportunity, diversity inclusion, and growth, a very long name, but at the end of the day, uh, the goal of PRODiG is to hire, uh, faculty of color and women in STEM fields across, uh, the entire, uh, SUNY, uh, system and the institutions that compose, uh SUNY. And also, uh, I, I believe about a couple of years ago, uh, SUNY set forth a robust DEI action plan that has 25 specific recommendations, right? And I think that many of the SUNY institutions, and certainly, uh, UAlbany is actively engaged in these, uh, specific recommendations to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion at the University at Albany. So we have made, uh, DEI one of our core, uh, priorities of our strategic plan. We are one of the most diverse research institutions, uh, in the country. And so as we continue to work with, uh, SUNY and the work that is putting forward, uh, we can have great accomplishments as an institution of, uh, higher education. Just think about the power of a public system, uh, such as SUNY with 64, uh, university campuses distributed throughout the state of New York. We have great possibilities and opportunities to become a national leader and a model for, uh, diversity, equity and inclusion across the nation.
Dr. Jim Sunser:Thank you. That's very, very exciting. Now, I also know that you're the executive director of the Hispanic Leadership Institute, and I'm curious, uh, how are you approaching DEI through the lens of fostering the success of Hispanic and Latinx leaders? Now, ultimately your development of rising stars will have an impact on leadership at SUNY. Why is it important that we look at the role of the college or university president playing in diversity inclusion, both on the campus and the surrounding communities, including with employer partners.
Dr. Havidan Rodriguez:Yeah. And that's a critically, uh, important question. And that's another element, right. Of the, uh, in addition to, uh, EOP prodigy and others that I mentioned at the SUNY level. This is another systemwide, uh, initiative with a great focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, and, uh, the Hispanic leadership Institute, or HLI, uh, was brought forth we're in our fifth year, we're gonna be celebrating actually our fifth anniversary with a conference, uh, in September. And this is a SUNY wide initiative funded by the state legislature, uh, with the support of New York State, right? So it's a strong commitment, not only of SUNY, but, uh, of the State as well, to continue to foster diversity, equity and inclusion in this, uh, focus on Hispanic or Latinx leaders across, uh, the SUNY system. For me, I've been leading the program for three years. It's been a great pleasure, great honor, uh, to do so. Jim, as you know, we, as presidents of institutions of higher education have very little time to do anything but our work, uh, a as presidents in leading our institutions, but leading the Hispanic Leadership Institute, uh, Institute, uh, has been important for me because it's a form of first of all, giving back of really making sure that we are providing the necessary professional development and mentoring, uh, to emerging Hispanic leaders, uh, within SUNY that hopefully, you know, they will become the next department chairs, deans, associate provost, provost, presidents, uh, within SUNY, uh, institutions. So it's key that we continue to develop these types of programs that allow us to develop the talent that we have across our campuses, but in order to do so, uh, intentionality must be a key fact, right? We must be intentional in terms of the work that we do. And as campus presidents, we have the ability and the opportunity, uh, to set the tone at our institutions or across SUNY. We set the table. We direct or redirect, uh, resources, operations, programmatic, uh, priorities. We ensure that as presidents with the support of our faculty, our staff, and our leadership team, that diversity equity and inclusion really becomes a fabric of our institution, uh, of our institutions. And so I think we play a critical role in serving as the Executive Director of the Hispanic Leadership Institute, uh, is also a way that I can give back and serve not only you all but in my institution and the state as well. You know, we, we talked about, uh, or you asked about, you know, the, the role of large number of regional and national organizations and how we engage with these organizations. Well, you know, one clear example is why you and I are here today. Uh, Jim, uh, because of our involvement, uh, and engagement with the Middle States, uh, Commission. So this is a great example of how external organizations to our institutions, uh, work together, uh, to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and the role that college presidents have in ensuring that we are successful, uh, in these, these endeavors, right. You know, we continue at UAlbany, uh, to also work, uh, with, uh, employer partners. I'm constantly meeting with executives from regional, uh, industry partners here in the Capital region and beyond. They are keenly focused, as you know, on diversifying their workforce. And, you know, at UAlbany, as I said before, uh, 40% of our students are students of color. So we, uh, are very diverse institution, and we graduate students of color every single year upon the thousands. Uh, and that is a great interest, uh, to, uh, these industry partners, because this allows us to contribute to the diversification of our, uh, uh, industries, organizations, and community partners, which is greatly needed.
Dr. Jim Sunser:Thank you. I have, I have such great respect for your expertise in this area. And, and based on that understanding of your expertise, I'm curious as to, through your own lens, what you think are the greatest opportunities and challenges that are in front of us, as far as advancing diversity equity, inclusion efforts that are on our campuses?
Dr. Havidan Rodriguez:You know, in terms of opportunities and challenges that, you know, when, when you, you, you have to think about in, in my view, uh, in, in the context of diversity, equity and inclusion as this being, you know, the work of, of if you will a team sport, right? And that is the opportunity because it allows you to bring people, uh, from different areas of the university, not only the president, not only the chief diversity officer, not only the provost, but the deans, department chairs, and faculty and staff and students. And so if you approach it as a team sport, that's a great opportunity. It's also a great challenge because you got to bring all these people, uh, together to think about the ways that we can work to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion, uh, in our campuses. So this has to be a collective effort. And so let me give you an example. Our alumni association here at UAlbany has established a diversity, equity and inclusion and belonging committee to make sure that the work of DEI is woven through, uh, all the, all, all the initiatives, uh, and our work that the alumni association does. Right? And so in order for this to happen at the institutional level, you need to continue to expand the discussions, and you do this by creating spaces, uh, for conversations and discourse that reflect, uh, the goals and the mission and the vision of the institution, focusing not only on race and ethnicity, but on gender identities, sexual orientation, first generation status, uh, and beyond. And so this goes into the broad issue of social and racial justice. And so bringing in the community, uh, to talk about these issues is critically important. And going back to the first question that you asked, some of the things that have changed, you know, as a consequence of the social reckoning on race and in COVID as well here at UAlbany over the past two years, over two years ago, I should say we established, for example, a racial justice committee. And we also establish a biased incidence, uh, response, uh, protocol. The racial justice committee allows us and the community to explore anti-racism that has targeted black and brown, Asian, a, uh, Asian American, Pacific Islander, uh, and the Latinx community, right? Focusing on the expertise that our faculty and our staff bring together. So that's one element. The other element, the bias incidence response team, uh, allows, uh, anybody on our campus community to bring issues of, uh, allegations of bias or discrimination to this committee so that we can, uh, review and determine what the issues were and try to determine what the, uh, what, what the intervention and the outcomes are going to be. And we also established, uh, we began about three years or ago or so to establish climate committees that are embedded in all the schools and colleges and the different divisions that allow the schools and colleges and divisions to look more in depth at the DEI issues that confront their particular units. So when you pull all this together and you think about a team sport, this is about cultural change at the institutional level. Now we know culture change is not easy to come by, but if you have a holistic approach and you come together with a diversity of people and diversity of perspectives, I think we can move the needle forward.
Dr. Jim Sunser:Great, you know, beyond UAlbany, you know, how do you think SUNY's DEI initiatives are impacting the lives of current and future students?
Dr. Havidan Rodriguez:You know, we all want to hope, and we all want to believe that what we do, uh, is to the benefit of our students and our, in our communities and that it is having a positive impact. And so that is critical, but we, we, we gotta go, we have to go, I should say, beyond hope to really determine what are the actual, what are the actual impacts? So, you know, we believe through a number of mechanisms and I'll talk about a few, uh, that we've been developing that, uh, through some of the initiatives that I've mentioned, both SUNY and UAlbany, uh, specific, we are becoming an increasingly, uh, more welcoming, uh, community, right? So when I, as president walk across the campus, or when I go to the campus center, or when I go to, uh, any student initiatives and events, you can see the diversity of our students. You could feel the diversity, you could hear, uh, the different languages. And so that certainly contributes to creating a much more welcoming uh, community. Of course, we need to, uh, the successes we've had in diversifying our students, we need to extend to diversifying our faculty and our staff as well. And we have much more work, uh, to do that, to do, uh, in that regard, we have, uh, continued to increase the level of student engagement, uh, attendance and participation in DEI, uh, training and programs. We're doing assessments associated with DEI programs, and the training indicates that students feel better informed, more knowledgeable about what's transpiring at the institution and what we're doing, uh, to support these, uh, initiatives. Students who make referrals, as I mentioned, to our bias incidence response protocol, uh, show overall satisfaction with how the incidents have been resolved, uh, at the University at Albany. So that is, uh, something, uh, uh, very positive. Uh, so we need to continue to work in these endeavors because we still have a long road ahead of us, despite all the work that we've done. I think there's so much more, uh, to do. And we've also been trying to, uh, increase the resources, uh, in many of the areas that support, uh, DEI. So over the past, uh, two years we created a, a new endowment, uh, for the EOP, uh, program. We created an endowment, the first endowment for our office of diversity, equity and inclusion, because we wanna make sure that people understand that we're not only committed to this i n words, but we're putting our resources in areas that really matter, u h, to our institution. U h, and again, u h, I think it was about a year ago, u h, we established t he availability of a gender inclusive housing. So we established one of our residence halls is now called the Harvey House, which is named for, uh, LGBTQ champion and university at alum, uh, Harvey milk, uh, who graduated at 1951. So now we have a residence hall where people of LGBTQ plus backgrounds feel welcome and feels that the university, uh, cares about this. Many institutions of higher education have developed living and learning, uh, communities. Uh, we've done the same. We just established a social justice living in learning community where our first year students are, uh, exposed to robust introductions in the way social justice, uh, and racial justice impacts us, impacts them and impacts our community. So at the end of the day, we, we do all this because, I'll end where I started, because our goal is to educate and to develop, engaged global citizens. So by putting these issues, these challenges and these opportunities at the forefront, we can make this a community effort. We can make this a team sport, and I think we will continue to be successful in that regard as an institution, as a system and as a community.
Dr. Jim Sunser:That's really wonderful to hear. I want to thank you for your honesty and your openness in tackling these important issues and for adding your voice to our perspectives on diversity equity inclusion in today's college and university campuses. Thank you again, Dr. Rodriguez.
Dr. Havidan Rodriguez:It was my pleasure. Thank you so much. And again, thank you to the commission as well.
Dr. Jim Sunser:And to our listeners. Thank you for joining us. If you want the Commission to highlight the efforts of your institution in a future podcast, then please visit MSCHE.org/ pillarsofchange to submit your suggestion. On behalf of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and our guest, Dr. Havidan Rodriguez, I'm Dr. Jim Sunser saying thank you.