New director shapes campuswide
diversity
by Cindy
AbolePublic Relations
Timing is everything to Willette S. Burnham.
As the new director of Student Diversity and Activities, Burnham joins MUSC’s campus with the same positive, wide-eyed enthusiasm and energetic tempo that she’s carried to each of her roles in higher education. The result has been a career journey that resonates a common theme: the ability to help all students achieve their best by coordinating academic experiences that help them learn about themselves as well as others.
Willette Burnham“I’m thrilled to be here and part of MUSC’s family,” said Burnham. “I’m passionate about what I do. I love it and look forward to doing the very best I can in this role and serve the entire MUSC community.”
Since her start in April, Burnham has gotten little rest learning the campus and meeting people—students, faculty and staff—in her new capacity. One of her first priorities was helping the campus realize the significance of the program’s name change to the Office of Student Diversity and how this new role impacts the institution. The change was the result of an extensive review of the university’s needs related to student diversity and culminated from a 2005 report from J. Hermann Blake, Ph.D., sociologist and educator.
The change also reflects her leadership as executive director of Student Programs and sets priorities for the Division of Education and Student Support Services. The consolidation brings together all student activities— student government, housing, the MUSC Gives Back program and Office of Student Diversity. Although establishment of this new unit is expected to bring subtle changes in the long run, the offices of Student Programs and Student Diversity are committed to work as a team in communicating a shared message that’s both clear, consistent and sensible, according to Burnham.
“Ms. Burnham comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and considerable experience in general student services administration and the development of programs for minority students,” said Valerie West, Ed.D., associate provost for Education and Student Life. “We are fortunate to have her guiding our new Office of Student Diversity and providing key leadership to our mission of serving students and promoting intercultural and interprofessional understanding.”
Burnham’s team is focused on three areas for student diversity: how students spend their time and developing ways to maintain student involvement; answering the “so what?” factor and helping students discover the benefits of community service; and finding effective ways to respond to the needs of students and staff within each of MUSC’s six colleges.
“Ideally, I’d like the Office of Student Diversity to be a primary resource for all departments and programs to assist in meeting their specific needs and goals for creating a more diverse environment,” Burnham said. “The key is that there are no pat answers or formulas that can be applied to people with regards to diversity and cultural competency.”
With more than 30 years on MUSC’s campus, the Office of Diversity established a noted presence for students. As the public responded to issues like affirmative action and social injustice during turbulent times in America’s history, college campuses reacted to their own cross section of society by making adjustments and learning to evolve to meet the needs of students and the greater area community, according to Burnham.
“People working in higher education have experienced these same challenges time and again,” Burnham said. “My presence reflects on where we are today—serving a broader, more diverse population of students who’ve come with a very different set of experiences than the students of the 1960s and 1970s. Therefore, our office is focused on trying to define our roles in terms of services and programs based upon the new needs and demographics of our student society.”
While preparing for her job interview, Burnham concen-trated on learning about MUSC’s curriculum changes as a way to learn what today’s medical and health care student might be like. What she discovered confirmed her suspicions. Medical students are now far different from their counterparts of 30 years ago. Burnham also found few examples of teaching cultural competency in program curriculums, especially as students prepared for clinical experiences.
“The fact of the matter is that in the not-so-distant future, there will be a very different type of community that will need us and these students-in-training will be expected to be prepared in terms of their experiences, values and beliefs around medicine and health care,” Burnham said. She said it was already happening in cities and locations with a large diversity of ethnic groups like New York, Los Angeles, and bordering states such as Florida, Texas, Arizona and California.
The daughter of a family of educators, Burnham grew up in Kingstree and attended public schools in Williamsburg County. Wanting a life atypical from her educator-parents, Burnham went north for college and attended Trinity College in Hartford, Ct., where she graduated in 1976. With an English literature degree in hand, she soon found her way back home and took a teaching job working with veterans and seniors at Williamsburg Technical College. In 1984, she transferred to The Citadel to address Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action policies at the military school. She later was named deputy director for cadet activities, working with students on publications, student programming and extracurricular activities. She was one of the institution’s first women administrators of color and remained there just prior to the cadet corps’ co-ed expansion of women in 1994.
At the College of Charleston, Burnham managed the Upward Bound Program, a high school preparatory program organized to assist low-income, first-generation students interested in attending college. She later became director of Intercultural Programs creating programs that focused on the retention of minority students and working with Enrollment Management regarding student services. She later was named associate vice president for Student Affairs and managed the development and coordination of strategic plans for student life, community outreach, intercultural programs and diversity initiatives throughout the college.
An accomplished leader and administrator, Burnham participated with the American Council on Education’s Office of Women in Higher Education and South Carolina Women in Higher Education programs throughout her career and acquired several grants focusing on community educational programs and partner-ships throughout the Lowcountry.
Currently, Burnham hopes to continue spreading her message of collaboration and goodwill among students and staff. She wants to emphasize the need for all students to consider ways of getting involved, whether its community volunteering, student government or committing to other activities that relate to interaction and learning.
“Ms. Brunham was selected following an extensive national search. She impressed the committee with her communication skills, leadership abilities and positive relationships with students and colleagues throughout her career,” West said.
Friday, Sept. 22, 2006
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