Neal Smatresk Aug. 28 e-mail to UNLV

From: unlvofficial@unlv.edu
To: unlvofficial@unlv.edu
Sent: Fri, Aug 28, 2009 5:40 pm
Subject: Administrative transition- Dr. Christine Clark

Office of the President
4505 Maryland Parkway * Box 451001 * Las Vegas NV 89154-1001
Phone 702-895-3201 * Fax 702-895-5955

August 28, 2009

Dear Colleagues,

Please join me in thanking Dr. Christine Clark, UNLV’s Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion for her administrative service in this role over the last two years.

Dr. Clark has done an outstanding job against tremendous odds. Indeed, as our inaugural Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, Dr. Clark did the really heavy lifting—both administratively and politically—that is always involved in establishing a ground breaking initiative.

As a result of these foundational efforts, her successor will truly enjoy great benefits as a result of Dr. Clark’s work. In fact, the entire campus community owes Dr. Clark a debt of gratitude for blazing the trail for social justice work at the senior administrative level at UNLV.

While Dr. Clark’s accomplishments as Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion are too numerous to note, among the most impressive are her:

· Creation of diversity-related infrastructure in admissions, assessment and evaluation, and advancement—including marketing and alumni relations

· Establishment of key equity- and diversity-related structures at the system, campus-wide, and college levels, as well as with community stakeholder groups

· Broadening of campus diversity and inclusion programming, which can impact and link to campus initiatives, like our curriculum reform efforts

· Establishment of UNLV’s Multicultural Center-Centro Multicultural

Clearly, Dr. Clark has created a blueprint for us to build on as we move diversity and inclusion forward at UNLV.

In recognition of Dr. Clark’s contributions to the development of UNLV’s comprehensive framework for campus equity, diversity, and inclusion, she will retain the title of Founding Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion. Further, as Dr. Clark returns to her full professor role in the College of Education, the campus will capitalize on her international recognition in the field of multicultural education by having her serve as our Senior Scholar in Multicultural Education.

Because of Dr. Clark’s national reputation—as both an administrator and a scholar—with the National Association for Diversity Officers in Higher Education and the National Association for Multicultural Education, I have asked her to assist me with the transition and search for the next Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at UNLV.

Dr. Clark, it has been a pleasure to have you serve UNLV as our Founding Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion. I look forward to working with you as a distinguished member of the UNLV senior faculty.

Sincerely,

Neal J. Smatresk
President