John Wesley Taylor Update on Mission & Culture Position

“An Update on our Current Search Process for the Mission & Culture Position

Nov. 30, 2023

Dear colleagues,

In a number of conversations recently here on campus, including some in the Monday, Nov. 27, faculty meeting, I have been asked about the process and purpose behind the posted position of Assistant to the President for University Mission & Culture.

I appreciate your honest and frank feedback and questions on that issue. Last evening, a writer from the Student Movement also reached out to me with questions about the position and the search process.

I'd like to share with you the response I submitted to the student newspaper earlier today,

Statement for The Student Movement

When the diversity position was first established at Andrews University in 2017, it was first set up as a vice president for Diversity and Inclusion. This evolved over time, and the office and position was changed to vice president for University Culture and Inclusion. With a vacancy in that position to transpire shortly before my arrival, President Luxton wrote to the campus about this transition, identifying an interim Chief Diversity Officer.

Once I began my work as the president this July, I began reviewing the specific responsibilities and structure of this role as we prepared to move forward. Once that process was complete, we posted the revised position online, and have now begun a formal search process to identify a candidate to permanently fill this role.

As additional context for this process—as I began my work on this campus, the Andrews University Board of Trustees have continued to affirm that the president be specifically responsible for the overall structure and staffing for the administration of the University. To fulfill that assignment as it relates to this role, I have listened carefully to the voices of the many constituencies of Andrews University on this topic. In my attentive listening with our Andrews University family, I realized that there are many different perspectives on this issue, as you might expect in our University community which is characterized by remarkable diversity. 

Additionally, as I did that review work within our community, some perspectives that I heard, for example, held that the diversity position should be formally placed in either the areas of student experience or human resources, which admittedly is in line with some higher education practice. However, at the end of this listening and review process, I arrived at the belief and conclusion that a diversity-focused position should be a senior administrative position here at Andrews University. I also concluded that we should take a renewed approach in carrying forward this important work and provide our Andrews University diversity officer with an expanded title and role as Assistant to the President for University Mission and Culture. It’s important to note that this newly structured position will report to me directly and will serve as a member of my President’s Cabinet.

So, what would change with this new approach and title, and what would remain the same?

First, this new title is designed to help bring consistency to how we describe administrative positions on our campus. Currently on our campus, the title vice president typically indicates that the individual is responsible for a specific sector of campus life, such as finances or student experience, with multiple units comprising the sector that each vice president is responsible for directing.

On the other hand, the title and role of Assistant to the President for University Mission & Culture represents a position that is intended to reach across and throughout the broad scope of the University. As a result, this new title and job description is intended to be a more appropriate designation for this position, which will have cross-campus responsibilities and influence. I am committed to the idea that this sort of role can and will be an influential position on our University campus. As an example of the impact of “assistant to the president” roles, the new president of Southwestern Adventist University previously served as assistant to the president on that campus.

This restructured position would expand to also focus on and help inspire our broader Andrews community to continue to be fully committed to encouraging and helping to coordinate a campus-wide process of living out our mission and integrating our core values into the fabric of the entire Andrews University experience—values which do and must include the values of justice and compassion. 

I also want to be clear that what does not change with this position is that the important and essential work of this diversity officer role will be committed to continuing to help move our University forward on issues of diversity throughout all areas of our campus. 

While the issues and context of diversity positions morph and the terminology used to describe those positions can and does change over time, our commitment to the blessings and strengths of Andrews University’s diversity remains steadfast. We will continue to strive to meet the needs of all our students, faculty and staff.

This includes an assignment to further deepen multicultural understanding and intercultural engagement on our campus, and to also uphold an Andrews University community that must always seek to be just and fair, as God calls us to be. 

As we continue in this process, we ask for and welcome your prayers as we work to formally fill this position. Also, if you have further questions or comments, you are welcome to stop by my office on the third floor of our Administration Building, or you can write to me directly at president@andrews.edu. If you’d prefer to share your thoughts and comments anonymously, you can do that through the Campus Feedback section of the president’s website.

Also, if you have specific suggestions or nominations for this position, kindly share those with Dr. Bordes Henry-Saturne (bordes@andrews.edu), chair, School of Leadership, or with Christopher Findley (findleyc@andrews.edu), AUGSA president, who both serve as members of the search committee for this important position.

Once again, we invite your prayers and we seek God’s blessings and influence as we pursue our search for this Assistant to the President for University Mission & Culture position.

I pray that these notes will offer some additional and valuable context, and as I invite at the end of the statement above, I encourage our campus community to continue to share feedback, including concerns, with me directly, or with either of the two representatives from our search committee for this position.

As we continue in our shared journey, I also want to affirm how much I value the commitment, sacrifice and passion that each one of you brings to your work, service and mission here at Andrews University. I also want to affirm the important relationship between Andrews University administration and you, our faculty and staff.

It is through building trust and strengthening our communication with one another that we will be truly successful in reaching our mission of changing the lives of our students.

Thank you for your continued feedback, commitment and prayers as we seek to fulfill and honor the essential and World Changing work of Andrews University.

Warm regards,”

Observations

History suggests that we cannot seduce an organization from bad to good. You can’t do it incrementally.  Now, it happens the other way all the time (from good to bad) but we can’t reform an institution incrementally. 
It has to be done with boldness, vision and courage, where you cut away elements of the organization that are defiling the mission (2 Kings 18:4-7; 2 Kings 23:3).  It will cause a temporary ‘hurricane’, and that’s ok. The wind stops blowing and people around the world catch the vision and want to come and be part of it.

That’s what effective institutional reformation and revival looks like. Pray for JWT and those faithful people around him who are doing the honorable task of realigning our school and biblical mission.

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