When Patrick and I were looking for our final senior project together after our four years of being partners in just about everything journalism, we took a deep look at what really matters to us. The idea finally came to us right around the time of our final pitches– we wanted to focus on the issue of diversity at Cal Poly.
After a history-making summer surrounding COVID-19 and the rise in the BLM movement sparked from the protests following the murder of George Floyd – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is vital to move forward. When we pitched the idea to our class, we learned of the new Dean of DEI in the CAFES Department at Cal Poly: Dr. Catherine Kleier.
“In the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the social and racial injustices across the country the CAFES hiring a dean for diversity and inclusion is long overdue” said my partner, Patrick Madden. “At the start of this process I had my own set of biases, but after meeting with Cath Kleier, I can say now that the college has landed a good one in Cath Kleier. Her doer personality and work ethic provided me with a glimmer of hope as Cal Poly takes on its issue with diversity.”
As the whitest public university in California, Cal Poly has an unfortunate history of racial injustices. The least diverse college within the university, the CAFES Department, housed a noticeable number of those incidents.
Cal Poly’s CAFES department has often been scrutinized for their past and their lack of diversity, so how does Dr. Kleier aim to make a difference?
“I definitely know about some of the struggles that CAFES had in the past, you know, the 20 plus years ago, and some even more recent” said Dr. Kleier. “I think you have to acknowledge that, yeah, mistakes were made in the past that no one really wants to take responsibility for, but we all have to, you know, we’re all responsible for those. And what we’re responsible for is doing something about it, and trying to be proactive.”
Through the Zoom interview with Dr. Kleier, it was evident to Patrick and I just how passionate and enthusiastic she is in her new position. Dr. Kleier spoke with a wide smile about the future of DEI within the CAFES Department for a decent 45 minutes, and once we asked her about her past and what rooted this dedication, the smile grew.
“Look, I’m an ecologist. I was trained as an ecologist and in ecology. The more diversity generally, in a plant community, the more resilient that community is. And that’s the way I feel about human communities too.
“I feel like we are only as strong as our diverse connections to each other and so that when things happen, like Coronavirus, if we have a strong community, we’re going to bounce back better than if we were segregated and separated and apart.”