MU staff, students meet second candidate for Chief Diversity Officer

MU students and staff got a look at the second candidate trying to become the University of Missouri System’s first ever Chief Diversity Officer.

On Thursday, they heard from Kevin McDonald, who serves in a similar role at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Western New York, and before that, Virginia Tech.

He thinks real progress requires some politics, but ultimately, you have to work together with different groups.

“You can’t take this work with a cookie cutter approach, you have to determine the lay of the land. Find out where the bones are buried, find out who your strategic partners are going to be, align yourself appropriately, and hopefully you’ve aligned yourself with some people that have some pretty strong credibility and they can also help you bring some people around,” said McDonald.

The first public forum was held on Tuesday, and the last one will be Wednesday.