The chief diversity officer for the Office for Equity and Diversity and the assistant vice president for student diversity and equity resigned from their positions within the Center for Ethnic Student Affairs within five days of each other.
Octavio Villalpando resigned from his post as chief diversity officer on March 31, and Enrique Alemán announced his resignation a few days later.
Rumors circulated for months that Villalpando was being investigated for human resources violations. He and his wife, who is also a professor at the U, were on a research assignment in Mexico during the time of the rumors.
In December, students organized a sit-in at U president David Pershing’s office to express their concerns that Villalpando was being forced out of his position. The protest resulted in a backlash against a comment Pershing made assuming that some students in the crowd were illegal immigrants.
Villalpando sent his resignation letter to his colleagues and asked them to offer their support to the new interim chief diversity officer, Kathryn Stockton, a professor of English.
Alemán resigned in support of Villalpando.
Kristobal Batty Reyes, a housing ambassador and a member of the Center for Ethnic Student Affairs, has been outspoken on the topic ever since Villalpando resigned.
“[Villalpando] had no idea … that this was going on,” Reyes said “He’s probably the most qualified for this position in the nation right now … it’s really sad that we’re losing him.”
Reyes said when Villalpando got back from his research sabbatical no one was responding to his emails and he was cut out of the loop. Reyes said Villalpando decided to step down because he was no longer able to advocate for what he felt was necessary.
“The CESA office was never really included in that conversation from the start,” Reyes said “They want to move CESA out of the office of Equity and Diversity and into Student Affairs.”
Reyes said that if this happens there would be a wider division between CESA and the President’s office and said he is concerned the U’s administration is viewing this issue purely as a financial issue and not a campus climate issue.
Reyes said that at the very least he would like CESA to have a voice in the decision to replace Villalpando and Aleman. Reyes said so far they have been denied this request.
“They’re putting together a subcommittee,” Reyes said. “What they told us though, the reason why is that they can only have 10 [members] of the subcommittee.”
Reyes said there was 30 members on a similar committee that selected Villalpando.
“We mostly want to be included in conversations,” Reyes said. “We don’t want [this] to happen again.”
Emilio Manuel Camu, the vice president of external affairs for the Asian American Student Association, said he is afraid the transition could cause a lot of harm to students. He said if advisors have to be switched during the restructure, many students could be affected.
“It’s really scary in which direction this university is going in,” Camu said. “I question their experience working with communities of color.”
Camu said he feels the U focuses on the enrollment rate for students of color and does not put enough weight on the retention rate. Camu said this number scares him.
“I’m scared to graduate because I know other students coming in are going to be going into such a toxic campus climate here that people aren’t even willing to address,” he said.
Camu said a perfect example of this is the University of Utah Confessions page on Facebook. He said the page has become racist, sexist and homophobic. A recent post Camu mentioned was one in which a student posted that their time at the U has made them racist against Asians.
“I really wish we would listen to the student’s experiences, the marginalized students’ experiences,” Camu said.
[email protected]
@ChronyNathan