University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced the Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement (DDEEA) would close and its programs would largely be relocated to the Division for Teaching and Learning in a Wednesday afternoon email to the UW-Madison community.
DDEEA’s employee support functions will move to the Office of Human Resources, and their staff members focused on institutional data collection will join Data, Academic Planning & Institutional Research. Scholarships and student support and cultural programs will continue to be supported by the university, Mnookin said.
Of the approximately 100 employees that comprised DDEEA at the beginning of the day, “fewer than 10” employees in the areas of administrative support, event support and communications have received a layoff notice as a result of this reconfiguration, a UW-Madison spokesperson told the Daily Cardinal. UW-Madison traditionally gives notices of layoff several months in advance.
“We will do all we can to support these valued colleagues as they seek their next role,” Mnookin wrote, “either at the university or elsewhere.”
These changes come at the recommendation of a late June report from a working group, originally created to provide a data-driven review on how the university could better support undergraduate students through resources and campus-level programs.
“Although it made excellent sense at the time of DDEEA’s creation [2009], we do not believe it makes sense any longer to have DDEEA’s holistic support programming separated from our broader engagements in student support,” the report reads. “Given the evolution of our support ecosystem, legal shifts in permissible focus, and the resource-intensive nature of DDDEA programs, we strongly believe the time has come to consider reorganization.”
These changes also follow the demotion of UW-Madison’s former top diversity official, LaVar Charleston, in January after an internal review revealed financial mismanagement in the DDDEA, including approval of bonuses and excessive spending on travel and events.
Former ASM Chair Dominic Zappia said at the time that he thought it “likely” the division would undergo some change after the demotion.
Alongside DDEEA’s relocation, the chancellor announced that university-level academic support will also be housed in the Division for Teaching and Learning, and efforts focused on student well-being, involvement and belonging will be housed in Student Affairs.
A new office will also be created in Student Affairs dedicated to serving first-generation college students and those with financial need.
“I believe these changes will allow us to serve many more students with an even greater array of resources,” Mnookin said. “It will also set us up to be able to develop better flows of information to support success, to develop a strong student navigator system, and to report on our progress.”
Despite the end of DDEEA as its own division, though, Mnookin says diversity will continue to occupy its place as a cornerstone of UW-Madison.
“I also want to state clearly and unequivocally that diversity of all kinds, including diversity of viewpoint and diversity of identity and background, remains a core value of our university,” Mnookin wrote. “We must create the conditions here, including through programs and support services, that allow all of our students, faculty and staff to flourish and to reach their full potential.”
Annika Bereny is the campus news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as the special pages editor. As a staff writer, she's written in-depth on campus news specializing in protest policy, free speech and historical analysis. She has also written for state and city news. She is a History and Journalism major. Follow her on Twitter at @annikabereny.
