UVa has created a “Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity” position, and named Dr. William Harvey as the man to fill it, the AP reports. Harvey’s most noteworthy experience in this realm is his recent work as the vice president of the American Council on Education’s Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity and, prior to that, the Vice President and Director of the organization’s Office of Minorities in Higher Education. Harvey is, it must be noted, African-American.
UVa has a history of racial tension, though perhaps an even stronger history of talking about talking about racism. Presumably, Dr. Harvey will take the position that has long been assumed by UVa Dean of African Affairs (aka “Dean of All Things Black”), M. Rick Turner, and hopefully handle matters somewhat more delicately than the notoriously heavy-handed Turner.
Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity. Can we just use the acronym (VPCODE)? Are you kidding me? It sounds like the title of a Soviet apparatchik. But I guess it’s really necessary, you know, after the FBI was brought in to tell us a buch of bizarre graffati on Beta Bridge was, um, not exactly Selma all over again.