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By Sharron Hannon
shannon@uga.edu
Louis A. Castenell Jr., dean of the College of Education at UGA, has been tapped by Senior Vice  President for Academic Affairs and Provost Karen Holbrook to coordinate institutional efforts to promote diversity.
Castenell has agreed to serve as acting associate provost for institutional diversity, a senior administrative position reporting directly to Holbrook. In that role, he will provide leadership in developing a coordinated campus-wide program to support equity and diversity in UGA’s student body and workforce. He will direct efforts to improve existing programs and institute new strategies and initiatives for the recruitment and retention of minority students, faculty and staff.
“I appreciate Dr. Castenell’s willingness to take on this challenge in addition to his duties as dean,” says Holbrook. “His administrative background and leadership abilities, plus his energy and creativity, make him very well-suited for the task.”
Castenell has served as dean of the College of Education since 1999 and during that time has reorganized the administrative structure of the college and initiated several comprehensive partnerships, including one between the university and the Athens-Clarke County school district. Prior to coming to UGA, Castenell served as dean of the University of Cincinnati’s education college, where he attracted national attention for his innovative programs to help the city’s public schools.
“Occasionally, the right person is available at the right time for the right job,” says President Michael F. Adams. “In this case, Lou Castenell is that person. He brings to this position a wealth of experience, a firm commitment, a refreshing practicality and a passion for increasing the diversity of this campus. We are fortunate that he has agreed to serve in this capacity.”
During his career, Castenell has won praise for his ability to bring diverse groups together in cooperative relationships, and he is known as a leader who can motivate others to accomplish lofty goals.
His priorities have always included increasing opportunities for minorities, and he has served on committees on cultural diversity and multicultural education for two national education associations, chairing one of those for two terms. Castenell is currently chair of the board of directors of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and is one of 10 individuals on the national faculty for AACTE’s New Deans Institute.
Castenell has established a strong record of recruiting, mentoring and promoting minority faculty. At Cincinnati, he served for nearly a decade as chair of the Presidential Advising Community on Race and Human Relations. In addition, he has focused his scholarly research on issues of race and diversity in testing, learning, social growth and other aspects of minority achievement in schools. He recently edited two textbooks on higher education leadership in a diverse context.
As acting associate provost for institutional diversity, Castenell will set up an office on the first floor of the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building. He has already discussed with senior administrators putting together a “design team” of faculty, administrators, students and staff to develop a multi-phase plan. Phase I will address student recruitment and retention, faculty leadership and mentoring, and staff development, suggesting ways to augment current initiatives and ongoing efforts and establishing an empirical database and benchmarks to ensure progress. Phase I will end with a plan for Phase II.
As envisioned by Castenell, the design team will consult with an advisory council to be drawn from various campus units and organizations and also involving alumni and community leaders. Once the design team completes its assignment, an executive team similar in composition to the design team takes over to implement the plan.
“The first step is to assemble the design team, which I will tackle right away,” Castenell says. “I’m committed to having Phase I of the plan they create in place no later than the start of the new academic year, and we’ll be ready to move forward.”
Castenell says he is confident he can balance his new administrative duties with those as dean of the College of Education. “I’m a believer in distributed leadership so that day-to-day management is not dependent on a single person,” he says. “In addition, these are overlapping environments. The College of Education’s role in educating teachers for the realities of K-12 education gives us an understanding of the primary pipeline that feeds prospective students to this university.”
Castenell also stresses that addressing diversity issues is a campus-wide effort. “We will be building on the commitment of senior administrators and many individuals and campus organizations, such as BFSO, GAPS and others,” he says. “I’ve already had offers of support from some of my fellow deans and others who can make things happen. This is going to be a community affair.” |
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