NEW YORK – The BIG EAST Conference today announced the formation of a conference-wide Diversity and Inclusion working group, which has been tasked with examining the current diversity environment in intercollegiate athletics and creating a strategic D&I roadmap for the Conference’s Presidents and Athletics Directors. The working group will review policies, initiatives and best practices among BIG EAST member institutions and other athletics conferences and develop strategies designed to enhance the athletics-related D&I efforts already underway on BIG EAST campuses.
The D&I working group roster represents a broad cross-section of athletics department and university personnel from all ten BIG EAST schools and includes the following:
- Sonya Hopkins, Associate Director of Academic Support, Butler University
- Christopher M. Whitt, Ph.D., Vice Provost for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, Creighton University
- Carolyn Lewis, Associate Athletics Director for Business and Financial Affairs, DePaul University
- Rosemary Kilkenny, Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity, Georgetown University
- Adrienne Ridgeway, Executive Associate Athletic Director, Academic Services & Student Programs, Marquette University
- Jill LaPoint, Deputy Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator, Providence College
- Nancy Kaplan, Ph.D., Associate Provost/Student Development for Athletes Program, St. John’s University
- Jim Semerad, Senior Associate Athletics Director/Internal Operations, Seton Hall University
- Malcolm Grace, Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Student Services (Basketball), Villanova University
- Nathaniel Lie, Head Women’s Soccer Coach, Xavier University
The working group will also include representation from the BIG EAST Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. DePaul rising senior and track and field student-athlete Rutendo Chimbaro will serve in that role for 2019-20.
“We look forward to bringing together all of our schools to consider additional programs, practices and promotional activities that will help increase athletics-based opportunities and retention for underrepresented groups across all of our campuses,” said BIG EAST Commissioner Val Ackerman. “The commitment and deep knowledge of our working group members will be of immense value as we strive to be a force for positive change and better correlate the make-up of our athletics leadership ranks with the diversity of our student-athlete population.”
All ten BIG EAST schools, as well as the Conference Office, were early signatories to the 2016 NCAA Presidential Pledge, an association-wide commitment to promoting diversity and gender equity in intercollegiate athletics. In 2017, the BIG EAST hosted a D&I Solutions Roundtable in Providence, R.I., for more than 75 college administrators in an early attempt to identify strategies around hiring, retention and positive work environments for women and people of color.
Following initial calls in the spring, the BIG EAST D&I working group will conduct an in-person meeting in early fall, with an eye to formulating conference-wide recommendations by the end of the year.