St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan said she plans to hire a full-time chief diversity officer in the Office for Mission in order to continue improving the campus climate.

Susan Alexander, the executive adviser to the president, said the university has reached a point where it is appropriate to move forward with the full-time position in place of the current part-time position held by Mari Ann Graham.

“I think that we’re just ready for this now,” Alexander said. “We are more unified in purpose than we were before, and it seems that we could take a step forward.”

Alexander said diversity has improved in the last six years since the previous climate survey results were collected, but also that there is more work to be done.

Sullivan and Alexander have been meeting with various on-campus affinity groups as a way to get to know the university on a different level and find out what concerns these groups have.

The faculty-staff allies group, a body of St. Thomas faculty and staff members who are LGBT allies, met with Sullivan and Alexander on Nov. 11. Cara Anthony, faculty adviser for the UST Allies club and a member of faculty-staff allies, said the meeting focused on the need for a full-time diversity officer.

“We did agree on the importance of that chief diversity officer and working with that person when that person is appointed,” Anthony said. The officer would deal with all campus diversity issues, not just ones related to LGBT faculty, staff and students.”

Anthony said a benefit of having one full-time diversity officer would be more effective communication.

“One thing that we are developing on campus is having some dedicated time and resources and also (having) someone who’s a central communicator for all kinds of diversity issues,” Anthony said. “Right now, we may have pockets of activity going on, but we don’t all know what each other are doing. So one great thing that a chief diversity officer can do is kind of bring all that together.”

Alexander said the part-time position will be eliminated once a full-time diversity officer is hired.

Graham said the current position is primarily consultative and is used to respond to immediate needs across campus while collaborating with other departments. Graham said a full-time position would bring improvements.

“A full-time position … would be able to link more strategically and regularly with diversity initiatives across academic and administrative units,” Graham said in an email.

Graham also said a full-time position would give the diversity officer more time to coordinate different diversity programs and develop new initiatives and programs across campus.

Junior Angela Koch said a new face could benefit the university.

“If it’s someone new that can revamp this program, then that would be awesome,” Koch said. “I think the school needs some of that.”

German student Julia Schaetz said she would like to see more diversity on campus.

“There’s a lot of people from different countries, but I think they could still be more visible on campus,” Schaetz said. “Whenever I’m in a classroom, there are usually not many people from different countries there.”

Alexander said the university has not yet begun the search for the new officer and that there is no timeline in place at this time.

Grace Pastoor can be reached at past6138@stthomas.edu.