After a months-long search, UF’s Multicultural and Diversity Affairs officials have chosen Will Atkins as the new executive director.
Atkins has served in the interim executive director position since October after the former executive director Lloren Foster was fired partly due to a lack of leadership, according to Alligator archives.
Atkins will assume the full executive director position immediately and will be paid $88,000, said university spokesperson Margot Winick.
Atkins said he hopes to help MCDA continue serving its students and giving them supportive spaces.
He said he also wants to continue educating the university about inclusion. One of his goals is to develop workshops for different on campus groups and classes.
“To me, it’s all about making sure students feel like they are safe and they belong,” Atkins said.
Atkins said he was humbled to be given the position.
“I recognize that there’s lots of work to be done moving forward, but I’m very up for the challenge and look forward to seeing what MCDA will do in the future,” he said.
In an email to Mary Kay Carodine, the assistant vice president for Student Affairs, the search committee chair Calvin Mosley said the committee was split between Atkins and another candidate, Kimberly Williams Brown.
Mosley said it was up to Carodine as the hiring manager. Some of the strengths the committee liked about Atkins were his ideas on how to improve MCDA, his consistent leadership and relationship with ambassadors and colleagues.
One weakness listed was that they were “worried about how students would react to him in this position.”
In the past semester, three directors within MCDA resigned, according to Alligator archives. Some felt pushed out. Another was accused of creating emotional abuse within her department.
Outgoing and former directors have attributed the department’s damaging culture as the reason for leaving. To help with the turmoil within the department, Atkins said he needs to listen to students’ experiences.
“I think it’s really important for me to meet the students where they are and to really hear their voices and make sure that their voices are affirmed in the process,” Atkins said.
Ashley Marceus, a 19-year-old UF political science and African American studies sophomore, said she was thankful Atkins got the position.
Marceus, an ambassador with Black Affairs, got to know Atkins while he helped out after the former director, Vee Byrd, resigned.
“We have been through a lot as a whole family these four months, and I think he has gotten a feel for that,” she said.
She said she’s seen how much Atkins cares about the department and the students and expects him to use that as executive director.
“I think he’s going to use that passion and apply it to every one of the areas and make MCDA better overall,” she said.
Contact Romy Ellenbogen at rellenbogen@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @romyellenbogen
Will Atkins
