As Chapman’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) continues to create new DEI initiatives for students, their sights are set to foster further resources and awareness for LGBTQ+ students.

Chapman and the Office of DEI have brought forth various LGBTQ+ resources for students and faculty through the LGBTQ studies minor introduced in fall 1996 and the LGBTQIA+ staff and faculty forum, which began in fall 2017. Both the office and the university are now collaborating together to create a new position to assist LGBTQ+ students and faculty on campus by opening up recruitment in spring 2023 for the school’s very first director of LGBTQIA achievement.

“Many campuses and DEI divisions have folks that specialize in gender and sexual diversity work,” Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Reginald Stewart told The Panther. “I knew from the moment I accepted the VP role I wanted to do this, but I had to take the time to learn Chapman to see if there was a real need. It’s the very first director role I hired at my previous institution at Iowa State University, but here at Chapman, it’s the fourth as there were other pressing concerns I had to attend to.”

As of November 2022, the Office of DEI has already begun to create and fill similar positions to the director of LGBTQIA achievement for a few other cultural and societal groups on campus. 

So far, Gabriela Castaneda was appointed in February 2022 as the director for Latinx achievement and Misty Levingston filled in the role as the director for Black excellence and Achievement at the beginning of this fall. Araceli Martinez was also brought on to the Office of DEI to serve as the Executive Director for the Cross-Cultural Center (CCC) and First-Generation Programs in May 2022.

According to Stewart, the timeline for the recruitment process and the scheduled date of hire are still tentative. The department is targeting to have someone fill the position by early summer in order to give them a chance to help lead the programs that welcome new students to campus, get ahead on fall programming and become acclimated with the responsibilities that come along with the role. 

“I had no clue that this new position was even in the works, but I am really grateful that Chapman and the Office of DEI will be implementing a director for the LGBTQ+ community,” junior computer science major Alexandra Zuch told The Panther. “Creating this new position just goes to show how important it is to have resources and staff available to students who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, and I can’t wait to see what this new director is able to bring to Chapman.”

The recruitment process for the position is expected to launch in late February or early March, but according to Stewart, an exact date for the search to begin can’t be officially announced at this time since the recruitment date is still so far out and could be subject to change.

Since this new position was only formally announced a few weeks ago, it is still in the very early stages of being assembled. The responsibilities for the role are also currently in the works, with the Office of DEI taking inspiration from LGBTQ+ director positions at other college campuses to use as a framework to build a unique application for the role at Chapman specifically. 

Responsibilities for the position so far will include serving as a support system for LGBTQ+ students and faculty on campus as well as conducting training sessions for the Office of DEI, including unconscious bias and microaggressions workshops. 

“I am so excited to see what this new director has in store for the LGBTQ+ community on campus, and I’m sure that they will be able to provide many new opportunities and resources to students and faculty members who may need them,” said senior software engineering major Kevin Oropeza. “I think this (new position) is a great opportunity to have someone in a position of power at Chapman who will strive to make it their main goal to support all LGBTQ+ students and faculty members on campus.”

June, which is also Pride Month, would be the estimated month for the position to be filled by, which Stewart exclaimed would be “a memorable start month.” He also explained that he is in the process of putting together a search committee for the role, made up of LGBTQ+ faculty, staff and students on campus.

“Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to engage with LGBTQIA faculty and staff, and they have been instrumental in identifying what the wants and needs of the community are,” Stewart told The Panther. “They are the people who will serve on the search committee for the role as I would never presume to make this hire without real input from the students, staff and faculty.”

Following recruitment for the director of LGBTQIA achievement, Stewart has stated that a director for the Asian-American studies minor is next up to be recruited for at the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The Office of DEI, in partnership with Wilkinson College, hope to achieve this goal to bring about further resources and awareness to the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) community on campus.

“Dean (Jennifer) Keene and Associate Dean (Stephanie) Takaragawa have provided exemplary leadership in building out the ethnic studies minors by discipline for students to take,” Stewart also said. “Naturally, the Office of DEI has the APIDA achievement director in our long-range plans, we’ll get there.”

This is a developing story. More information about the new position, its roles and responsibilities and the recruitment timeline will be updated in a follow-up story by The Panther.