Four candidates to succeed Multicultural Resource Director and Associate Dean Rachel Beverly were interviewed on campus in the past two weeks. Three of the candidates were professors or lecturers, while the fourth is a former Oberlin employee with ties to the MRC.

The position was advertised for at least a month in prominent publications such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and Black Issues in Higher Education, according to MRC Director Search Committee Co-Chair David Kamitsuka.

Shozo Kawaguchi is the Director of Intercultural Affairs and Diversity Education at Vanderbilt University and Lecturer at Vanderbilt’s College of Education and Human Development. He has taught courses in “Social & Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education” and “College Student Personnel Services in Higher Education.”

Gina Petonito is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Western Illinois University, whose recent courses included “Social Inequalities: Race, Class and Gender,” “Social Conflict, Peacemaking, Enemy Construction” and “Juvenile Delinquency and Deviance.”

Eric Estes is a Mellon Lecturing Fellow and Chair of the University President’s Task Force on LGBT matters at Duke University. Recent courses Estes has taught include “The Politics of Sexuality,” “Sports in Modern Society” and “Women in 20th Century Europe.”

Adrian Bautista is Project Director of College & Career Transitions Initiative and Adjunct Instructor at Lorain County Community College. He was the Interim Director of Oberlin’s Bonners Scholars from 1999-2001, and served as a Student Life Community Coordinator for the MRC from 1996-1999.

Kamitsuka expressed satisfaction with all the candidates.

“Our finalists are superb,” Kamitsuka said. “They are knowledgable about multicultural issues and are very committed to the importance of diversity for educational excellence.”

Kamitsuka
said students were highly involved in the process through serving on the Search Committee and that the open candidate meetings were well attended.

“President Dye sponsored an informal pizza dinner for all the students that attended even one meeting so they could share their impressions with the the Search Committee,” Kamitsuka said. “If there is any one event that was most important in informing the views of Search Committee members, it was that meeting.”

Kamitsuka said he hopes the College will be able to announce the new director within the next few weeks.