I am pleased to announce that Sandra Johnson Spiegel has accepted the position of Director of the UVM ALANA Student Center. Sandra is currently Director of Multicultural Services for the Counseling and Human Development Center at Dartmouth College. Sandra´s appointment marks a new and focused direction for the ALANA Student Center. Sandra´s main responsibility will be the emotional, social and academic growth of ALANA Students at UVM. Her primary charge is to monitor and evaluate the various factors that contribute to the retention of students of color. The ALANA Student Center (formerly the Office of Multicultural Affairs) is located in the Blundell House on the Redstone Campus.
Sandra brings a wealth of experience to this position. She has worked as an elementary school teacher, a court advocate for families in New Hampshire, has held administrative posts related to affirmative action, counseling, women´s issues and training in multicultural issues. She has also had a private practice in psychotherapy in Norwich and East Corinth Vermont. She will be joining UVM on January 11, 1999.
She replaces Leon Lawrence, who has served as interim director of the ALANA Student Center for more than two years. Leon, who did not apply for the permanent post, will be joining the Provost´s Office as Special Assistant to the Provost on an interim basis.
DIRECTOR SETS SIGHTS ON DIVERSITY
ALANA: New director aims for happier UVM minorities
Burlington Free Press, January 18, 1999
by Leslie Wright
It´s been a little more than a decade since students at the University of Vermont took over the administration building demanding a larger minority presence on campus.
That protest and subsequent demonstrations throughout the '90s have kept pressure on UVM administrators to do more to recruit and retain minorities. The numbers, however, show that undergraduate minority enrollment has pretty much stayed the same over the past five years, hovering at about 4 percent.
UVM administrators say they want to change that. They have set a goal of 7 percent minority enrollment by fall semester 2002. Sandra Spiegel aims to be an important part of the formula that draws students of color to UVM and keeps them here.
She is the new director of the university´s ALANA Student Center, which is in Blundell House on the Redstone Campus. The acronym stands for African, Latino(a), Asian and Native American.
"It´s a tough job, but there are those of us that roll up our sleeves and say this is really important," Spiegel said.
Happy students are a key component in reaching the 7 percent enrollment goal, said Annie Allen, who is executive officer for cultural pluralism and Spiegel´s boss. Plus, a diverse student population prepares everyone for diverse workplaces and allows for a broader exchange of ideas.
"In the long term that will have an impact on recruitment because if students of color come to the university and have a good experience, they go back to their high schools and promote the university as a good place to be," Allen said.
Spiegel is quick to admit she´s an optimist and her broad smile and patient eyes reinforce that characterization. Sitting on one of the couches in the ALANA lounge, her attitude is relaxed, but it´s clear her energy level is high.
The daugher of a diplomat, she grew up in Georgia, lived for two years in Nigeria before attending Spelman College in Atlanta. While she wasn´t a minority at Spelman, she points out that she´s been in Vermont for 28 years where she has been a minority.
She started as ALANA director last week and came from Dartmouth College, a campus that has also had its share of well-publicized racial strife. Dartmouth, however has a much larger minority population, with a 25 percetn minority enrollment.
At UVM, Spiegel<´>s job is to keep minority students once they get here. Last year, there were 332 ALANA studetns out of a student body of 7,520, which translates to about 4 percent.
The numbers show the magnitude of Spiegel<´>s task. Statistics kept by the university show that minority students are more likely to leave UVM than are others.
Allen said Spiegal has the ability to be a liaison between students and the community.
<">She<´>s a real people person, and she<´>s lived in Vermont for many years and can help ALANA students appreciate and take advantage of the unique character of Vermont<">, Allen said. <">. . . students of color come to UVM from very integrated communities, which Vermont is not, and from communities that provide a wide range of cultural and social activities that Vermont doesn<´>t have.<">
Students who knew her at Dartmouth are sad to see her leave.
<">She<´>s done a lot of diversity work here, and she´s very good at dealing with issues...in a way that<´>s challenging but not threatening.<">said Shauna Brown, president of the Afro-American Society at Dartmouth.
Spiegel said she wants to make the ALANA center a place where students can hang out and take time out. Being one of few can be emotionally exhausting, she said, and she wants to provide a safe haven.
Spiegel said she<´>s been encouraged by the administration<´>s attitude about improving the racial climate on campus. <">I am very excited to be here. This is a very exciting time to be at UVM because there is an institutional commitment to address this need.<">
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