By Michael J. Tate, Vice President
The Division of Student Affairs, Equity and Diversity

When I joined WSU President Elson S. Floyd in announcing the merger of the Offices of Equity and Diversity and Student Affairs last May, we articulated a number of reasons why this was a good idea—ranging from increased collaboration between units of both areas to streamlined processes for serving students, faculty, staff, and alumni. At the time, I told our staff members that our new Division of Student Affairs, Equity and Diversity is laden with talented people; and bringing these talented people even closer together under one cohesive area, will surely result in great things for WSU-- more good ideas, stronger programs, and a chance to travel down roads we’ve never traveled before.

Now just four months later, and following a series of internal discussions, our Division leaders have identified six major areas of focus. We call them clusters. These clusters are areas we feel, with proper planning and focused effort, can (and should) become “areas of greatness” for WSU. We have challenged each other within the Division to create significant, measurable progress in these six areas by July 2008. The clusters are:

1. Academic Advising
2. Student Leadership/Engagement
3. Student Access to WSU
4. Campus Climate
5. Wellbeing
6. Divisional Strategic Planning

We have done some preliminary work in terms of defining the scope of these clusters and identifying leaders who are creating teams to address each one. There is not enough space to provide details here, but please know we recognize progress in these areas will largely depend on the involvement and cooperation of many people across the university. If you are interested in knowing more about the clusters, please contact Assistant Vice President Melynda Huskey at 509-335-2193. She is providing central leadership for the cluster initiatives and works closely with our team leaders. We welcome the collaboration, the energy, and the transformation this set of initiatives are generating for WSU.