Administrator leaving
Diversity officer taking similar job in Pennsylvania
Union College’s chief diversity officer is leaving the college for another opportunity at a time when a heated conversation between Union’s administration and a group of current and former students aiming to create a safer environment for Black and brown students on campus is underway.
After 22 years in various leadership positions at the Schenectady private school, Gretchel Hathaway, who also serves as dean of diversity and inclusion, will be leaving Union for a senior-level position at Franklin & Marshall, a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pa.
She will assume the role of vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, a new position at Franklin & Marshall.
“This is an exciting opportunity for Gretchel and one she could not pass up, both professionally and personally,” Union President David R. Harris said. “Based on her experiences at Union, she is uniquely qualified to lead in this new position.”
As a member of senior staff, Hathaway has led campuswide diversity initiatives, helping to create a number of innovative and impactful programs, according to the college. This includes a diversity and inclusion course offered to all employees that is designed to expand knowledge of issues related to diversity, and broaden the campus learning environment beyond the classroom.
Hathaway supervises the Office of Intercultural Affairs, which focuses on designing programming and workshops for students. She has also been instrumental in implementing the college’s affirmative action policy and developing procedures for grievance and mediation settlements. She serves on the review board of all faculty tenure and promotion cases.
“I have appreciated Gretchel’s counsel, her professionalism and her ability to connect with people across campus,” Harris said. “She has been a mentor to many students, offering them guidance and a shoulder at times when they most needed it. We will all miss her greatly.”
After a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, Harris, who is Black, released a statement about his own experience with racism and announced a new initiative to promote antiracist programming and policies at the college. He also led two virtual town halls taking questions and feedback from students about their experiences with discrimination on campus.
A group of alumni and current students at the largely white college responded by creating the Instagram handle @blackatunion to amplify the experiences of students of color on campus, part of a grassroots push at colleges in the region and around the nation to counter racism and discrimination through social media.
“Being Black at Union is especially difficult and isolating and this is the only means we have had of telling our stories without being gaslit or victim shamed,” organizers behind the Black at Union Instagram account said.
The students have pressed the college to do more to support Black students. One of the group’s key demands, outlined in a letter to Harris, was for Union to cut ties to the Schenectady Police Department, noting its history of disproportionately targeting minority communities for low-level offenses and in light of a video that recently surfaced showing an officer kneeling on a Black man.
Hathaway joined Union in 1998. She has served in a number of roles, including director of affirmative action, community outreach, and the science and technology entry program.
In 2008, she became the first African-american to join senior staff, as senior director for campus diversity and affirmative action.
Following Hathaway’s departure, Union will proceed with a team approach to diversity and inclusion leadership and several new members will be brought into the discussions.
“I look forward to working with this group to identify and implement meaningful and sustainable change in how we teach, learn, reflect and act on matters of race, power and privilege,” Harris said.
Hathaway’s last day at Union is Aug. 3.