In an effort to increase diversity at UCLA, Rosina Becerra was recently named vice provost for faculty diversity and development.
Becerra was appointed associate vice chancellor for faculty diversity five years ago, but she said her new position is mostly a title change, though in her new capacity she will be working more closely with Chancellor Gene Block and Acting Executive Vice Chancellor Scott Waugh.
Becerra said her new title and her work with the chancellor reflects the continuing commitment of the university to faculty diversity.
“It says that in changing the reporting line … the issues around diversity have been heightened with respect to their visibility and focus of diversity to the administration,” she said.
Block has stated that increasing diversity, among both students and faculty, is a key part of his plans for academic excellence, and Waugh said Becerra’s new title will contribute to this effort.
“The goal … was to give diversity a higher profile in the university hierarchy,” Waugh said.
“Her role is to help departments and individuals find ways of helping recruit and retain outstanding faculty and diversifying this faculty,” he added.
To this end, Becerra said she will be working on projects such as conducting diversity training for faculty search committees.
“It’s not training … about how to conduct searches, but rather to bring to mind the kinds of biases that might be introduced, to heighten our awareness of the kinds of issues that we need to attend to,” she said.
Another aspect of Becerra’s job is setting up diversity forums for department chairs.
“Being chair of a department is probably the hardest job on campus, and I think (the forums are) to provide chairs with certain support in helping carry out their job, because they are closest to the faculty,” she said.
She is also working on what she called a “career advisory corps,” which would partner senior, tenure-track faculty with more junior faculty to help them advance.
Becerra said previously these kinds of efforts had been done by departments, but this would be a broader, university-wide effort.
Becerra’s job also encompasses broader issues of faculty development.
Thomas Rice, vice chancellor for academic personnel, said he has worked with Becerra on what he called “faculty-work life issues” such as affordable housing, availability of affordable child care and initiatives to help the spouses of faculty find jobs.
Becerra said she feels diversity is a natural part of this faculty development and will benefit the university overall.
“Whatever we do out of this office is to help everyone,” she said.
Becerra said that although she works specifically on faculty diversity, it can certainly benefit students and other members of the UCLA community.
“I think (one of) our educational goals is to ensure our that students have the best and broadest and most inclusive education they possibly can,” she said. “While my focus is faculty, (students and faculty) are interactive. … We’re all together in this.”
Though Becerra, a first-generation college graduate herself, said the university has made strides in addressing issues of diversity, she believes there is still much to be done and she understands faculty and student concern about it.
“I understand that perspective, and yes, it is a long time coming, and yes, it is slow,” she said.
“But the only thing I can point to is, over the past five years, the trajectory of change has been upward,” she added.
She said the university must work on increasing the faculty representation of underrepresented minorities, particularly black faculty.
“I think the challenge is to ensure that everyone understands how diversity is critical to our excellence,” she said.
“We have no choice. This is where we have to go.”