Efforts made to adapt to increase in diversity

By Michelle Loria Alvarado

Contributor

As the racial and cultural demographics of Trevecca’s student body changed, Trevecca’s administration responded by creating new student organizations and hiring an administrator to oversee efforts to unite the community.

After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, faculty and students were concerned about how minorities at Trevecca did not have a space or someone to talk to about these themes.  

“It was a product out of  the university wanting to become very intentional and very strategic about giving diverse students a place to have a voice and a place empower diverse students to create opportunities to share their culture and their ethnicity with their campus community,” said Iris Gordon, director of the Neighborhood Empowerment Program at the Center for Social Justice. 

A group of students united and met with Trevecca’s administration and expressed their concerns. The administration responded by creating a position on campus so a person could focus on the concerns of the minorities at Trevecca and lead conversations about how to live well in a diverse community. 

In 2022, Trevecca hired Terrence Schofield, ASC provost for mission excellence and reconciliation, to better serve the diverse community that arrived on campus.

“I think our faculty have been asking, ‘How do we serve a changing population?’ So we’ve had to become more intentional about doing that, so Terri’s hire is a big part of that,” said Thomas Middendorf, university provost and vice president of Trevecca.  

Schofield started multiple groups, committees and ways to reach students. This helps the administration to know which areas of diversity need improvement on campus. 

Some of those initiatives have included:

Climate Survey

This survey was the first intentional step to include students’ perspectives and points of view in the decision-making process and resolve any racial issues on campus. 

“That’s why I did the campus climate survey. We want[ed] to hear your voice,” said Schofield.  

Focus Groups 

After the climate surveys, Schofield was concerned about what students brought up, so he started the focus groups. 

“The focus groups have started as a byproduct of the climate surveys because we wanted to get the voices behind the survey,” said Schofield.  

Focus groups are an opportunity for students to share their experiences at Trevecca and give feedback about the areas of diversity where Trevecca needs to improve.  

“It’s important and needed because it gives administration, staff and faculty a better kind of angle. It doesn’t give the full picture, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not important. And that’s how you can improve, by asking people what are things that we can do better, what things are challenging. If you never ask those questions you don’t know,” said Justin Jose, director of leadership and community engagement. 

Book Clubs 

Schofield started this initiative to talk about difficult issues regarding diversity and opened a space for faculty and students to give their different perspectives. 

“It came out of the discussions. How do we intentionally have conversations around hard issues so that people can be heard and just identify ways to improve, regardless of what your role is on campus, if you’re faculty, staff or students?” said Gordon.

Students and faculty are divided into groups where a facilitator leads the discussion. They read a book that talks about the difficulties of minorities, and everyone shares their perspectives about the book.  

Students interested in participating in these groups, email Schofield at teschofield@trevecca.edu