Student members of a search committee organized in 2003 are concerned about the university's currently vacant Diversity Advocate position.

Committee member Sara Ryan said last week she is concerned because the position, which was created as part of the university's Framework to Foster Diversity in 2000, is still vacant after being filled for one semester.

Erik Malewski, who left Penn State to teach at Purdue University, accepted the position at the beginning of spring semester 2003 but left the university at the end of that semester.

"It's not anyone's fault, but we feel the administration is not taking the position seriously," Ryan said.

"The administration had made it clear that this is not the most urgent matter," she added.

Ryan, who is also Allies president, said one of the biggest problems with the position is that the university has made it a part-time advocacy position when she said she thinks the campus needs a full-time employee to focus on diversity issues.

Vice Provost for Educational Equity Terrell Jones said the advocacy aspect of the position is, in fact, part-time.

"The workload does not suggest full-time status," he said.

Marcus Whitehurst, vice provost for underrepresented groups, who interviews potential candidates, said the position is both full and part time. A part-time counseling aspect, along with the part-time diversity advocate portion, combines to make a full-time position, he said. "It is a very important position. With a position of this magnitude, students want and need a strong person," he said.

Jones said the person would give special attention to individuals who are victims of hate. The diversity advocate would work on a part-time basis creating pro-active programs, monitoring the hate Web site, www.equity.psu.edu/reporthate, and annually reporting crimes.

Ryan said she thinks the advocate's duties, as they are currently structured, are inadequate.

"We are afraid that this is just not good enough; the university needs someone working full-time on this issue," Ryan said.

Black Caucus President Tiffanie Lewis said the fact that the position is only part-time is the major problem. She said the university has made the position so "low grade" that truly qualified applicants will not apply.

Lewis said she thinks the administration is not convinced about the frequency and severity of hate crimes on campus.

"I don't know what it will take for the university to warrant this a full-time issue, the hate incidents in the past must not have been convincing enough," she said.

Jones said the advent of the position was not in direct response to recent incidents of hate, but it was created as part of a university action plan to enhance diversity.

Malewski said the issue that needs to be addressed is the way the position is designed. The diversity advocate position is designed as a management-level position for entry-level, first-year professional applicants, he said.

"You want someone with experience and history in this area, but the grade of the position sort of contradicts the quality students may be looking for," he said. "If you are getting quality candidates with better offers elsewhere, it's going to be tough to fill the position there," he said.

Malewski said when he left Penn State, the university's centralized infrastructure for reporting hate was "getting there," but a lot of work to fulfill student requests still needed to be done.

"There is a lot more than what is on the surface with this job," he said. "In terms of being split between a counselor and part-time advocate, there is much more than 20 hours of [diversity advocate] work."

Jones said the search to fill the vacancy began in the fall and grew close to completion, but on the day of the top candidate's interview, the applicant accepted another position.

"We had a failed search," he said. "The woman did not tell us until the day of the interview; that set us back to square one," he said. "It couldn't happen much faster than it's happening."

Jones said the search committee wanted to fill the position by the end of the fall semester but had to extend its goal to the end of this semester.

Jones said the committee has narrowed its search and is close to making an offer to a candidate.

"We will have this person very busy doing something, but it is pro-active, not full time," he said.

Whitehurst said he has received several committee recommendations on applicants, and the committee is currently reviewing applicants' references. The decision will be made as soon as possible, but it is hard to give a time frame as to when the position could be filled, he said.

Assistant Provost for Educational Equity Thomas Poole said it usually takes around three months to fill a vacant position in the university, but it depends on the position.