The months-long search for a Vice President of Equity and Belonging and Senior Diversity Officer has been deemed a failure by President Jim Wohlpart and is set to be re-launched in the fall, according to an email sent out to CWU staff and students on the morning of April 30. Interim Vice President Dr. Lucinda Carnell is set to return to her position as a member of the biological sciences faculty after the end of the year. 

When The Observer reached out to Carnell over the phone, she said that she was about to enter a meeting, but would answer our questions when emailed to her. In response to our email that was sent immediately after the phone conversation, she answered none of the questions, and instead directed us back to the statement issued earlier in the day and to the head of University Relations David Leder for any further questions. When The Observer reached out to Leder, he said, “We don’t have any additional information to share at this time,” but said that a follow-up email with more information was “in the works.” 

The email from Wohlpart highlighted the hope of Wohlpart, the search committee, the executive leadership team and the shared governance leaders of CWU to “hire an Interim Vice President who has proven executive-level experience.”

When reached out to for comment, ASCWU President Malik Cantu expressed their dismay with the failure to find someone to fill the position full-time. “The decision to call a failed search on this position is concerning,” Cantu said. “Especially since many students expressed positive feedback on each candidate. With the constant turnover and shifting of leadership and even faculty and staff, students are losing faith in the university’s stability. This position in particular not being filled sparks deep disappointment. I will reach out to President Wohlpart to learn more about why this decision was made.”

The three candidates from the failed search were Abby Chien, Dr. Schvalla R. Rivera and Dr. Allen Sutton. Chien has a masters from the University of Connecticut in Higher Education and Student Affairs. From 2019 to 2021, she was the director of CWU’s Diversity and Equity Center and was promoted in 2023 to the current Associate Director of Strategy & Partnerships with the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC). Chien has been with WSAC since March 2022. 

Rivera has a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on teaching, learning and leadership from Indiana State University. They have experience as both the associate vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion from June 2020 to February 2021 and then vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion from February 2021 to June 2023 at Grinnell College. During their tenure in both positions, they also served as the chief diversity officer and senior advisor to the president. Rivera is the founder and president of Consiliaris LLC, a coaching and consultant firm.    

Sutton has been the executive director for Equity Education at Washington State University since 2019 and earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in Higher Education Administration from the University of Alabama that same year. Sutton is expected to complete another master’s degree, this one in justice and advocacy from Fuller Theological Seminary in spring 2024. His first master’s degree, completed in 2005, is a Master’s of Education in College Student Personnel from the University of Southern Mississippi.  

“Given some of the challenges we are facing, and the need to demonstrate progress in our work to become a model learning community of equity and belonging, it is essential that we hire the right individual to lead our university during this challenging time,” read a portion of Wohlpart’s email sent out to the CWU community April 30. 

According to Wohlpart’s email, CWU will “review CVs [Curriculum Vitae] for potential interim candidates from The Registry,” an interim placement firm for higher education institutions in the U.S., to fill Carnell’s position after she returns to the biological sciences department. The Registry has been used in the past by CWU. Publicly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, only two-to-three of the 19 members of the firm’s leadership team appear to be people of color.

The search ceasing coincides with the launch of @centerwa_catsofcolor, an Instagram account led by many of CWU’s faculty and staff of color. Their first post, published on the evening prior to the halting of the search for a Vice President (April 29), a manifesto of sorts, reads: 

“We, as faculty and staff of color at CWU, are writing to express our solidarity with students of color and our colleagues. We hear and see you! Like you, we find ourselves experiencing a more profound, pronounced, and insidious marginalization under the current administration. Instead of a learning community of equity and belonging, CWU has fostered a defensive culture that amplifies our fears of speaking out. Therefore, we feel it’s important to convey how the new mission and vision touted by the administration has merely masked age-old structures of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy. 

We face discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, size, gender, and sexual identity more intensely than ever before. Under this administration, our experiences and concerns are often dismissed or ignored. Our job descriptions are misclassified and inaccurately assessed and valued; we are professionally and experientially invalidated, tokenized, and retaliated against through performance evaluations and blocked pathways to promotion. Highly regarded tenets of postsecondary education of shared governance, expertise, and integrity have been brushed aside in the name of equity. Responsibility to actualize our mission and vision has been pushed down by our leadership to those who are being hurt by the leadership. 

Until considerable change occurs, we will continue to share our experiences and fight for a future where equity and belonging prevail. Stay tuned for more.”

The Observer reached out to Leder about the Instagram post and in his reply, he said that “[President Wohlpart] and our executive leadership team take this kind of criticism very seriously. If you do a follow-up story for next week, we will likely be able to provide you with a more thoughtful response.”

The Observer will continue coverage of this situation in the coming weeks.