Dr. Kyle Reyes is leaving his position as special assistant to the president for a new position in the School of Education, where he will teach and lead on inclusivity, multicultural education and diversity. On July 1, his title will gain two words and he will begin as special assistant to the president for inclusion. The position will start him on the track for tenure.
Reyes has been working in the office of the president for nearly five years. While in that role, he took every opportunity to engage with students that he could, but he missed student interaction.
“Now, my job is to be connected to students, which is great,” said Reyes.
About 15% of his previous responsibilities included the implementation of the university’s strategic inclusion plan. The plan will be one of his main focuses. The title was specifically worded to reflect the relationship that the position will retain with the office of the president. Reyes will continue to counsel and work closely with President Matthew Holland.
“We’ve made some really substantial progress towards developing a more inclusive campus but it had been a little ad hoc. We’d think of something here or see a need there and we’d address it. We’ve done a lot and made some good progress. My chief hope for him is to bring this into a more coherent, integrated, over-arching strategy with priorities and metrics so we could start to see how we’re doing on this front,” said Holland.
Along with leading an effort in improving inclusivity, diversity, multiculturalism and access equity, he will be teaching a few classes a semester. Those classes will focus on teaching future educators to handle the challenges that come with more complex or diverse demographics in classrooms. There has been a need for more resources in the multicultural education and the new position will satisfy that need.
“It really combines everything I have worked for and wanted to do,” said Reyes. “To do something like that at some random institution would have been cool, but to do it at a place where I grew up (as far as my professional career), where I absolutely love the students, staff and faculty and I believe in our mission? I couldn’t be happier.”
The vacated position has not yet been filled and will receive a new title, chief of staff. The new chief of staff will supervise external relations, special events and projects, and sit as Board of Trustees Secretary. Holland is looking at both internal and external applicants.
“We’ll probably have some great internal candidates apply and they’re going to be given every consideration, but I’ll also be open to external candidates that apply too,” said Holland. The posting will be open until midnight on Tuesday, June 10.
