Dividing the workload

When I look at our leaders and I don't see someone that looks like me, I think, okay, I could be the first, but I wish I didn't have to be, like, because I've always been the token black person. So why do I have to do it again? You know? And so I think that's really hard because, for example, right now, because I am the only black female, I get asked to do a lot of DEI projects, which I'm like, that's great, I'm happy to do that, but like, who else are you asking? Are you asking the white person? Are you asking the male? Are you asking, you know, the person that's not Catholic? Are you asking all these other people? And they're not.

And so, I think for me representation means I can divide some of the workload of transforming people's minds and adding a different voice. And I feel solidarity when I have someone that looks like me on, on leadership teams or on project teams. And right now we don't really have that. So I get put on a lot of interviews. For like, hires, so like on interview committees. Because I think that they want that person to see a black leader, but I'm the only one, you know? So that's not really fair or a representation, or a good representation of who we are Like we say we want to bring more diverse thoughts and people into the university, but what are we actually doing and are we putting money behind the recruitment of those people?