Preston Williams

Trent leads new White House Initiative on HBCUs

Colleen Rich — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:39:33 +0000

Trent leads new White House Initiative on HBCUs Colleen Rich Wed, 03/09/2022 - 13:39

Dietra Trent. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Strategic Communications

Dietra Trent, special advisor to George Mason University President Gregory Washington, has been named executive director of the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). She started Feb. 28.

Trent, who also served as chief of staff for Interim President Anne Holton during the 2019-20 academic year and was a key driver of Mason’s Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence (ARIE) Task Force, was previously Virginia Secretary of Education.

“I’m truly honored to have been selected to work in this capacity in the Biden-Harris Administration and for Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona,” said Trent, a graduate of Hampton University, a Virginia HBCU. “I look forward to promoting HBCUs across the country and sharing the history and excellence that come from these colleges and universities. It’s a great opportunity.”

Trent also served as Mason’s interim vice president for Compliance, Diversity and Ethics, and was pivotal in establishing ARIE, one of Washington’s signature initiatives. ARIE, with a university-wide task force of more than 100 members, harnessed and expanded Mason’s existing equity and inclusion efforts to root out systemic discrimination and racism at the largest and most diverse public university in Virginia and establish Mason as a national exemplar in anti-racism and inclusion.

“Dietra was given a number of challenging initiatives to successfully launch and manage, and she did a tremendous job,” Washington said. “In a relatively short time as a Patriot, she made a profound positive impact at Mason with work that is now embedded in the fabric of our university.”

Trent’s new role likely will intersect with Mason on occasion. Under Washington, Mason launched the Hire-Excellence and Diversity Institute (Hire-ED), a partnership with Virginia HBCUs Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, and Virginia Union University. Hire-ED connects graduates to career opportunities in high-demand industries.

Trent served as Virginia secretary of education under Gov. Terry McAuliffe, deputy secretary of education under Gov. Tim Kaine, and director of constituent services under Gov. Mark Warner. Her charge now is to work with the Executive Office of the President and Secretary Cardona to eliminate barriers faced by HBCUs. She will lead priorities focusing on government policies, projects, and programs that serve HBCUs.

“The one thing HBCUs do better than any other university in the world is teach leadership,” Trent said. “Not only do they have incredible leadership programs, but they embed leadership, excellence, and service in every course. I often say that I earned my master’s and PhD from VCU. But I got my education from Hampton University.”

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Faculty and Staff News

President's Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence

Mason students well-positioned to fight for social justice, equity

Melanie Balog — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 21:32:03 +0000

Mason students well-positioned to fight for social justice, equity Melanie Balog Fri, 01/29/2021 - 16:32

Mason students and President Gregory Washington (bottom center) during a panel discussion at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Evening of Reflection on Thursday, Jan. 28. The event was hosted by the Coalition Building and Diversity Education, and co-hosted with University Life, Welcome2Mason, the Center For Culture, Equity, and Empowerment, Mason Votes, and Student Engagement for Racial Justice. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

Students living in this era of racial reckoning and political unrest have far more resources at their disposal than social justice advocates had a half-century ago, George Mason University President Gregory Washington told a student panel at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Evening of Reflection on Thursday night.

“We are in a difficult time – but we’re in a great time,” Washington said during the virtual event. “We are indeed the embodiment of Martin Luther King’s dream. And while we have a lot of work to do . . . that dream will be fulfilled.

“He had the tools of his day, and those tools were nonviolent protests. We have nonviolent protests as a tool. But we have economic empowerment. We have political empowerment. We have other tools that we can employ to help people – all people – today.”

Washington’s nearly hour-long question-and-answer discussion with a panel of students, and the annual Spirit of King awards ceremony, highlighted the Evening of Reflection, which also included performances from the School of Music. The evening’s theme of “a burning house” alluded to the concern King once stated about how he might be “integrating into a burning house.”

Washington, reminding students that King added that social justice advocates should be the firefighters suggested that parts of the house might need to be destroyed but other parts just need to be repaired and remodeled. And Mason students can help lead the way.

“From a learning perspective, this is the greatest opportunity that I’ve seen easily in the last 30 to 40 years,” Washington said. “Our system, our way of life, is being stressed in such a significant way that we’re learning things about the inner workings of our government, the inner workings of our legal system.…and how they are stratified in order to continue to support and maintain the country in which we live.

“I firmly believe that we’re going to be a better nation because of what happened. A big part of helping us do that is the actual academic institution. We get to study this. We get to learn from it. And we get to debate it and put it out there for the world to learn.”

The student panelists were particularly interested in the Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force that Washington established during his first month at Mason to make the university, as he said Thursday night, “a beacon to the country on what inclusive excellence means.”

The task force will conduct town halls Feb. 23 and March 4 to discuss findings and recommendations.

“We all have to come together and lock arms and make sure every single student here, regardless of who you are, gets what you need,” Washington said. “That’s what equity is all about. Equity is not about treating you all the same. It’s about giving you what you specifically need in order to be successful.”

Six members of the Mason community and one organization were honored with Spirit of King Awards for their roles in carrying out King’s vision today. They were:

Resounding Voice Award: Shauna Rigaud, PhD candidate in cultural studies

Emerging Alumni Award: Janae Johnson, assistant director, University Information

Superior Service Award: Black Student Alliance

Yara Mowafy Award: Ayah Abdelghany, information systems and operations management major

Spirit of King (student): Malek Salhab, neuroscience major

Spirit of King (staff): Kheia Hilton, staff clinician, Counseling and Psychological Services

Spirit of King (faculty): Richard Craig, MA director/faculty, Communication

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Campus News

President's Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence

diversity

President Washington's plan positions Mason for success

Colleen Rich — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 19:36:25 +0000

President Washington's plan positions Mason for success Colleen Rich Mon, 08/03/2020 - 15:36

At his first planning conference with the Board of Visitors, George Mason University President Gregory Washington outlined his ambitious framework for the university, including a mission to “reposition, restore and reinvent” Mason to achieve success in the post-COVID era.

“We are not going to look like we are the same institution two, three, four, five years from now….and it would be a mistake for us to think that we’re going to do that and to not correspondingly make the hard choices and the hard changes,” Washington said Thursday at the virtual conference, televised on GMU-TV. See the video here.

Washington said the institutions that will succeed in this new environment will be those that focus on reskilling, upskilling and retraining; provide clear pathways and flexible access to higher education; and focus on the grand challenges of their community and the planet.

“People are going to need to be reeducated and retrained in unprecedented ways,” Washington said. “We are the best-positioned institution in this state to do this, without question. But I contend we’re one of the best institutions in the country to move it forward as well.”

Washington unveiled or elaborated on several key initiatives, including executing the Safe Return to Campus plan, implementing a fiscal management plan to support the university through this COVID period, and forming a President’s Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence, which he announced last month.

Washington also announced that Mark Ginsberg, appointed as interim provost and executive vice president in March, will serve a two-year appointment in that position to provide continuity in leadership while the university conducts a search for its next provost.

Among other goals that Washington set forth at the annual planning conference:

Establish an Innovation-Mason Commission of “the most-forward thinking faculty, staff and administrators” to make recommendations to chart the direction of the university
Complete a national search for a vice president of research, innovation and economic impact to replace Deb Crawford, who is now the vice chancellor of research at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Restructure the position of the vice president of compliance, diversity, and ethics, and then establish and complete a national search
Restructure, redistribute, and reposition the responsibility of the vice president of academic innovation and new ventures
Establish an initiative aimed at retaining key faculty
Examine and decide on the possibility of forming a standalone graduate school
Become a national leader in forming public-private partnerships to take advantage of university assets

“We are at a time in history where we need institutions like Mason more than ever,” Washington said. “And I truly believe that not only I am here, but we are all here at this moment in time to continue the university's positioning to be at the pantheon of the nation’s great universities.”

Dietra Trent, interim vice president of compliance, diversity and ethics and special advisor to the president, gave a presentation about the President’s Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence, a group charged with rooting out and preventing bias in university practices.

Trent said the university-wide task force is still being formed but announced that Wendi Manuel-Scott, professor within the School of Integrative Studies and the Department of History and Art History, and Shernita Parker, assistant vice president for Human Resources Strategy and Talent Management, will serve as co-chairs, and Honors College Dean Zofia Burr will serve as the deans' representative to the task force, in addition to advising Trent.

Mason is the largest and most diverse public university in the state and one of only 24 designated Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers in the country—and the only one in Virginia. Historically underrepresented groups make up 53% of Mason’s undergraduate student body, with little to no disparity in graduation rates based on ethnicity or economic status.

“Our vision is that George Mason will become a national exemplar of antiracism and inclusive excellence,” Trent said. “Excellence requires diversity, it requires equity, it requires inclusion, and it requires performance. It all goes hand-in-hand.”