Taren Nance, director of diversity and inclusion, worries about changes that are being made to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) on the federal level, but he is attempting to conduct business as usual.
Nance’s job has been mostly a source of energy and excitement for him, but he said this recently changed after he heard some bad news. He said, “I heard about it on Friday and got a letter on Sunday from Dr. Piña about the Dear Colleague letter.” A ‘Dear Colleague’ letter is a form of communication from the legislative government to communicate changes in law or practice. This particular letter was used to lay out new rules regarding Trump’s executive order made on January 20 called “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.”
Nance said his first worry when hearing about the letter was simply, “Am I going to have a job come Monday morning? I think I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about it since it comes from the federal level and the things they say matter.” Nance said these threats from the Department of Education have hit him hard, and finding the same positive energy he had in the fall is difficult because of his worries for the future.
Nance said programming has become a more difficult challenge: “If I promote an event for students of color, is that going to be against an executive order?” He said this is a worry, but in general, there have not yet been great changes to his main programming. “We’re still continuing on with our multicultural graduation and our historical and annual events that we’ve always put on.” This is a relief for many students but Nance cautioned, “Those things can change today or tomorrow.” Nance likes to say his key to success is to keep moving forward. As more information comes, Nance must be prepared to change his tactics of handling student issues.
Nance said another big challenge during this political shift has been maintaining a professional atmosphere. He said he tries to be neutral as best he can, and tries to give students the facts. Nance doesn’t have an agenda, his job is to help students fulfill their needs even when he doesn’t agree.
Nance’s favorite part of his job is talking with students. It is what drew him into the education sphere. He said he can talk to students for two minutes or two hours about anything bothering them. He said he sometimes hears concerns about personal matters such as family or relationship problems, or he may hear something about an issue with DEI on IWU’s campus.
Either way, Nance has always been excited about finding ways to positively impact IWU. He said, “The hardest part of my job is trying to be strategic about developing different programming events to help target specific populations of our students.”
Although navigating programming decisions is difficult, he loves finding ways for students to get involved. He said, “My favorite part of programming is seeing the organic student engagement that always happens when students from diverse backgrounds openly engage their peers with love and respect.” Nance also said, “The most appealing part about working with college students is the ability to professionally and personally relate to them based on my experiences.”
Illinois Wesleyan University does not have any clear answers on how Nance and many others may be affected by current changes in educational policy. However Nance said, “IWU is committed to this [DEI] work now, in the short term and long term.”
