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OU hosted a Monday webinar for the last director candidate for the new Gateway to Belonging class, set to launch in fall 2021.
The chair of the search committee and event host, Joshua Nelson, introduced Akilah Carter-Francique, the current executive director of the Institute for the Study of Sports, Society and Social Change at San Jose University. Nelson also said she has held positions at Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University.
Nelson said Carter-Francique has received degrees from the University of Houston and the University of Georgia, and was awarded the 2016 Black Student-athlete Leadership Award from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas. Carter-Francique discussed her plans for the new gateway course and ways to get rid of the âcasual racismâ on OUâs campus by providing students a sense of belonging.Â
Adrienne Dixson, one of the candidates for director of OUâs new Gateway to Belonging course, has withdrawn from the search.Â
According to a Thursday email from Joshua Nelson, chair of the director search committee, Dixsonâs webinar on April 23 has been canceled, and all other webinars will proceed as scheduled.Â
Dixson, a professor of critical race theory and education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was scheduled to appear in the final webinar as one of four candidates for the position.Â
In an April 5 email, Nelson wrote the course is intended to help students build an âintercultural awarenessâ that will help them understand different perspectives. The future director will receive a faculty position, supervise the curriculum and lead the instructional faculty team, Nelson wrote.Â
Candidates for director of the Gateway to Belonging at OU program, a mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion course for students, will visit campus virtually from April 13 to April 23.
A mandatory semester-long course for students on diversity was one of the demands made by the Black Emergency Response Team in February 2020, protesting the university administrationâs response to two acts of racism on campus that month. The course became a formal part of the universityâs strategic plan when it was unveiled in July 2020.
The Gateway to Belonging at OU general education course is hosted at the university for new OU students to âbuild an intercultural awareness,â according to an email sent on behalf of Joshua Nelson, the chair of the Search Committee for the director. By understanding different perspectives â such as abilities, cultures and social backgrounds â students will build an âintercultural awarenessâ that will help them interact more e