The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is delaying hiring a new associate vice chancellor of equity, diversity and inclusion after the former administrator said in an Oct. 29 letter to faculty that she was forced out of the job.

Chancellor Venkat Reddy, the hiring authority for the position, told The Gazette he decided to postpone finding a successor based on a recommendation from the Faculty Minority Affairs Committee.

Members said they wanted to see “listening sessions” held with various factions on campus before advertising the position nationwide, Reddy said.

Doing so, “will give us more time to listen to different groups and how best to structure the office moving forward,” he said.

Although classes don’t resume until Tuesday, in a mostly remote format, small-group input sessions with students and faculty already are underway, the chancellor said.

“One of the things I’m proud of is we have a great culture,” Reddy said, “but there’s still work to be done to get in the mindset that diversity is not just a couple of people’s jobs on the campus but that it has to be ingrained in the campus so that everybody is more aware of it.”

Andrea Herrera, who had been associate vice chancellor of equity, diversity and inclusion for nearly three years, wrote in a  letter to members of a Faculty Diversity Assembly that she had experienced “openly hostile and intimidating treatment” from Reddy. She also claimed that such treatment created a “toxic workplace environment.”

Said Reddy, “People have the opportunity to say whatever they want,” adding that because the situation is a personnel matter, he could not comment further.

“Dr. Herrera did the best she could,” he said.

Herrera did not respond to a request for an interview, but a source provided The Gazette with her letter.

In the letter, Herrera claimed that ongoing friction between her and the chancellor led her to request mediation in May 2019, which resulted in her reporting to another top administrator for a year. In May 2020, she said she was told she would be under Reddy’s direct supervision again.

After expressing her concerns in October about Reddy at a meeting of the Faculty Diversity Assembly, which includes representatives from all academic programs, her complaints got back to Reddy.

Herrera said in late October she was given the choice of resigning, signing a release of all claims form and receiving a lump-sum settlement, or just resigning. If she did not do either, she said she was told she would be removed from the associate vice chancellor position.

Herrera rejected the options, writing in her letter “that women and underrepresented and/or minoritized peoples have been historically silenced from time immemorial, and … in response to a larger pattern of disregard for genuine commitment to equity, diversity and inclusive excellence.”

She also made note that she did not willingly or voluntarily resign.

As of Nov. 1, Herrera returned to teaching as a tenured professor in women’s and ethnic studies, Reddy said, a program which Herrera’s temporary replacement, Stephany Rose Spaulding, had been heading.

Spaulding, who had taught in and and directed the women’s and ethnic studies program, became UCCS’ full-time interim associate vice chancellor of equity, diversity and inclusion on Jan. 1. She filled in part-time from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.

School officials did not make Spaulding available for an interview. She will stay in the role until a new associate vice chancellor takes over, Reddy said.

Now serving as director of women’s and ethnic studies is sociology professor Heather Albanesi.

Reddy said he wishes Herrera well in her teaching and hopes she is successful.

He called the situation “unfortunate.”

“I am completely committed to equity, diversity and inclusion; it’s important to me, to UCCS and to the system,” he said. “If I am going to talk about respect and compassion, I need to abide by that.”

New $1 million for diversity put to work

The process to hire someone to permanently replace Herrera is running a semester behind, Reddy said, adding that a search committee already would have been appointed and taken steps toward finding candidates. He anticipates finalists being brought to the campus for interviews in the fall and someone being in the post a year from now.

“We’re rethinking how we can best set up this office for the future,” Reddy said. “The idea is let’s collect a lot of data and look at the culture, so all that will be useful for our next leader.”

Other factors involved in the hiring delay include that UCCS also is in the midst of a search for a new provost, constraints of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and a new $1 million infusion into advancing diversity initiatives at each of the CU-systems’s four campuses and central administration.

System President Mark Kennedy announced the additional funding from the CU Foundation in October, following years of complaints from students of color on the CU Boulder campus and critics of the top brass, who say administrators do not value diversity enough.

Kennedy hired a systemwide chief diversity officer last February, which some thought should have happened sooner.

CU-Boulder’s chancellor announced in October that he had started a search for a chief diversity officer for the campus. The position is still in the process of being filled.

The $5 million divided among the campuses and administration will be used to meet goals of a new strategic plan that calls for increasing the percentage of underrepresented students and employees, improving retention and graduation rates for students of color, low-income, first-generation and LGBTQ+, and ensuring people feel included.

Reddy said UCCS is using some of the money to expand the Multicultural Office for Student Access, Inclusiveness and Community, also known as MOSIAC, as well as the LGBT+ Resource Center.

Students are helping design the renovated space, he said, which currently fits about nine people. Construction is expected to be completed in March.

MOSIAC formed in 2003 to support the academic, personal and social development of underrepresented ethnic minority students and has since expanded to include all students in multicultural educational programs.

Both immediate and foundational changes are part of UCCS’ plan to improve equity, diversity and inclusion efforts, Reddy said.

For example, the Human Resources Department is instituting new training programs for supervisors and staff.

“Diversity is not about checking a box,” Reddy said. “It is about enriching the culture of the organization.”

UCCS ranks above the national averages in diversity of race, age, gender and geographic considerations, scoring 80 out of 100 points on a survey from collegefactual.com.

According to fall 2020 enrollment data, 36% of 9,767 undergraduates enrolled were ethnic minority students and 27% of 1,980 graduate students were minorities.

Among 1,618 faculty and staff, 19% were ethnic minorities, data shows.

Among her accomplishments, Herrera said in her letter that she created a strategic plan for diversity and inclusion, established the Faculty Diversity Assembly and a Student Diversity Assembly, adopted an anti-racism course for white students and pioneered a diversity scholarship program.

“She did a lot of work,” Reddy acknowledged. “We’re not going to lose everything Dr. Herrera did.

“In planning out the future, this is not scratching everything and starting over again. This is building on what’s been done.”