BIPOC Leaders Reimagining Change to Advance Diversity, Equity, and Student Success

Abstract

Critical to the work of academic libraries is their role in ensuring student success. Student success often consists of metrics such as self-efficacy, academic achievement, completion, retention, and persistence (Soika, 2021), which may be profoundly different for racially minoritized students as they often navigate under-resources, racialized, and gendered environments (Anyon et al., 2016; Solorazano et al., 2000). At the heart of student success is how well universities provide opportunities for student engagement that reflect their lived experiences as citizens and students. As a programmatic imperative, student success is becoming increasingly prevalent in academic libraries. This is a multifaceted effort involving not just the library but various areas of student, academic, and co-curricular engagement on campus. Recent efforts are underway in academic libraries that allow for the creation of new positions specifically geared toward student success. More importantly, we see an increasing number of administrator-level positions such as associate deans/assistant dean, being created to ensure the consolidation of student success programs and services. This presentation will explore these new roles through the experiences of two BIPOC associate deans across different institutions. We will discuss stepping into these new roles, re-imagining possibilities, and working towards empowerment and institutional transformation.