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As the academic year begins, the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence (OOIE) at New College has numerous goals to help make the campus a stronger place to live, work and study.
Bill Woodson, Ph.D., New College’s dean of outreach and engagement, and chief diversity and inclusion officer; is working with Stacey Campo, Ph.D., the first director of community outreach in the OOIE, on prioritizing multiple efforts for 2020-2021.
“Outreach and community engagement must be leveraged as a multiplier of the value we create for Florida and the world,” Woodson said. “And a diverse, equitable and inclusive learning community is essential, because our existence as a public institution is only justified if the value we create is accessible to all.”
Here are some of the OOIE’s overarching objectives:
Institutional:

  • Ensuring that the institutional response to the pandemic embraces equity, supports at-risk community members, and does not unfairly burden historically underserved identities.
  • Supporting the Manasota region’s response to the pandemic.
  • Supporting institutional goals for enrollment growth, reducing the representation gap, enhancing retention for all student identities, and enhancing New College’s regional and national profile.
  • Improving staff retention (all identities), and supporting opportunities for improving faculty and staff representation of historically underrepresented identities.
  • In a period of economic uncertainty, realizing all objectives with a focus on fiscal responsibility, and maximizing leverage of philanthropic resources wherever possible.

Community Outreach:

  • Remaining active with local chambers of commerce and major employers; and generating internship, research and career opportunities for students.
  • Building momentum with local media outlets to increase New College’s profile, particularly within communities of color, philanthropic communities, the arts, humanities, science and professional/pre-professional spaces.
  • In collaboration with Enrollment Management, accelerating outreach activities with Sarasota-Manatee high schools and community colleges, specifically State College of Florida, Hillsborough Community College and Valencia College.
  • Establishing efficient, sustainable processes for annual Mellon reporting and grant proposal evaluation, approval and management.
  • Collaborating with the New College Foundation on philanthropic opportunities, including a minimum $300,000 companion fund-raising effort for Barancik (by 2023; in conjunction with the OOIE).
  • Collaborating with the Center for Career Engagement and Opportunity (CEO) on targeted employee and internship partners, and the Mellon II-funded Arts and Humanities Internship.
  • Sustaining signature cultural events including Black History Month, and the Visions of the Black Experience Film Festival.

Inclusive Excellence:

  • Documenting outcomes and learnings from Phase I of the Inclusive Campus Climate (ICC) initiative, and deploying the next phase of the ICC roadmap.
  • Selecting and hiring a financial literacy specialist; an administrative assistant; and an associate director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for the OOIE.
  • Fully deploying Barancik co-curricular programming, including financial literacy and leadership development.
  • Developing campus-wide DEI key metrics and milestones, and supporting departmental implementation.
  • Partnering with the Chief Financial Officer and the Campus Police Department to address police/community relations issues.