By River Mitchel
@rivermitchell27
In July 2021, Slandie Dieujuste joined Springfield College as Vice President for Student Affairs. Over the summer, she assumed the role of Vice President of Campus Life and Inclusion, which includes oversight of the Office for Community Engagement, Office of AmeriCorps, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the Office of YMCA Relations. In addition, the Department of Public Safety now reports to Dieujuste. The Student spoke with Dieujuste about her new responsibilities.
The Student: What does your new role entail for you and the college?
Dieujuste: There was a Division of Inclusion and Community Engagement with Dr. Calvin Hill. He since has left and has gone to UMass Boston. He was here for about eight years and did a lot of great work, but much of that we did [together]. It was work of retention and belonging for students – he did a lot of community work. So when he left, the thought was, let’s bring this together into one division, so that we don’t work so much in silos. Not only does my division oversee the student experience outside of the classroom, but also is now engaged in a lot of the diversity, equity and inclusion work. Not only for students, but also for faculty and staff. So when we’re talking about belonging on campus, it’s about making sure that students feel that they matter here: that’s the kind of work we do.
The Student: What was the reasoning behind you overseeing Public Safety?
Dieujuste: If you look at other institutions, especially residential ones, [at] most of them you’ll find campus police or public safety under a division like this. Previously, public safety was under a CFO (Vice President of Finance & Administration Lester Primus). The CFO does a lot with money [and] deals a lot with facilities. I deal a lot with people and management of spaces, so like 95 percent of the work or interaction [with public safety] was happening with my division. It seems to be a better place and a better fit.
The Student: Could you go into detail about the type of work you do with the Public Safety office?
Dieujuste: They’ve been very instrumental in implementing the comfort dog program with Remy, and they provide service to not only on campus, but the surrounding area as well. An example of the work that we do together is emergency planning. That’s why Public Safety offers drills of emergency planning.
The Student: Why is it so important to foster an inclusive campus culture?
Dieujuste: We can’t talk about establishing a place of belonging if we are not intentional about engaging in conversation, or the work of belonging, which is the DIB work. But I think [what’s] also important is the work that is done inside of the classroom [in terms of] training of faculty and staff that we will continue to do. Because some of the students, even faculty, have said we need to diversify our curriculum. We need to diversify our staff and faculty so that the people who are teaching students actually look like them [and] have similar lived experience. But I also want to make sure that when we’re talking about DIB work, we’re not just talking about race and ethnicity, but [also] some of the invisible diversity that we need to focus on, [like] sexual orientation, gender and gender identity, and different types of diversity because those are very much part of people’s identity.
The Student: What’s your favorite thing about working at Springfield College?
Dieujuste: The students. Our students are absolutely amazing. I’ve never met a student population that is so caring.The students just make it fun every day [in] the care that they show for each other, and they show for this institution and in the community at large.
The Student: What would be your pitch to someone to come to Springfield College?
Dieujuste: I would say that Springfield College is a place to take care of you. That’s what I talked to the first-year students and the families [about]. My husband and I flew to Tennessee just a few weeks ago to drop off our 18-year-old son to college. I could relate to a lot of what parents and families and the sort of nervousness that they go through when they drop off their students. What I’ve said to them is that this is a place to take care of your students and that we’re committed to providing the best education, both in and outside of the classroom. We don’t just pay lip service, we do care. We understand student needs, and we understand needs change and shift, and that we need to shift alongside them. I would also say that we are a school that prides itself on establishing and forming relationships with students, and not every institution can say that. [Faculty] care about the teaching that they do as well as their research, and it’s really well balanced.
The Student: If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
Dieujuste: Martin Luther King Jr. I am fascinated by anyone who would care so deeply about a cause that they would be willing to sacrifice their life for it. I’d like to be able to just sit and learn from him and hear his thoughts and interact with them. The second one is, I would love to have a meal with my great-great-grandfather or grandmother. I’d want to hear about their story, and it’d be interesting for them to see where I am today. I was born in a very small town in the central part of Haiti. I come from a very low-income immigrant family, and they’ve worked so hard in my home country for my parents to be able to immigrate here and work so hard when they came here, for me to be where I am right now. So I’d love to have conversations about their sacrifices and think that they’ve overcome because their blood runs to mine.
The Student: When you’re not at work, what do you do for fun?
Dieujuste: I have a husband of 22 years and two children. One is in college, [and the other is a] 10-year-old. So for fun, I love to spend time with my family. I love to play Uno with my 10-year-old. So when I have free time, I like the opportunity to catch up on my Uno and beat them.