An office of inclusion and diversity will get a jump-start at the University of Memphis on July 1 when the school hires the first staff member.
President David Rudd will search for a graduate assistant for the office of inclusion, to research the services and trends of other universities in relation to the new, upcoming program.
The student government at the University of Memphis voted on and passed a bill, in October, to create an office of inclusion and sexual diversity, a workplace that most universities already have.
While the student government does have the power to create a new office, they voted that they would like to see one created.
The idea all started when Shelby Elkins, student at the University of Memphis, took initiative after realizing that there was no real central program dedicated to assist those of LGBTQA, women’s rights and sexual assault victims.
“I realized that we did not have anything to offer,” Elkins said. “We do not have a LGBT office (or) women’s right’ center.”
The new office of inclusion and sexual diversity would aim to expand programs and connect with the LGBTQA community. They alsohope to build relations within equality.
They would also try to make the new office a home for those within this community.
“I immediately started my research on institutions, private and public, close and far, to see how they dealt with the issues of LGBTQA, women’s rights and sexual assault,” Elkins said. “The data was outstanding, such strong offices across the country programming and leading students to where and whom they truly are. You can technically say that over 60 percent of our campus is under represented or not represented at all, being a majority female campus.”
Campuses like University Tennessee-Knoxville have set up similar offices. UT-Knox took five years to plan and prepare for the new office.
“I have full faith that our new Student Government board will push this in a positive direction,” Elkins said. While there have been no plans set for as to when the office is expected, there has been progress made for moving forward since the passing of this bill.
The student government has set out to hire a graduate assistant to research the next steps to take before the start up of the new office, something Ali Kingston, speaker of the senate, helped to organize.
“We originally looked at a full office, the size of the multicultural office or the size of student leadership and involvement, but that takes a lot of time and money,” Kingston said. “We realized we were more concerned with this starting soon, so we proposed we start with a single person and have it grow into a office. Because realistically, in August, we weren’t going to be able to have a full office of staff.”
The new graduate assistant will be the beginning of it all, reading up on and researching ways to make this new office thrive within its services in comparison to other campuses.
“President Rudd has been completely on board since day one for the beginning of the idea,” Kingston said. “He’s been completely supportive of hearing everything and figuring out how we can make this work. He’s the one that figured that we could do a graduate assistant. That is going to provide for the University to see how much we desperately need this. That individual is going to be able to do research and will be able to program and look at things. I’m really excited that it’s moving forward this quickly.”
The new graduate assistant is expected to be hired by July 1st.
