UNIVERSITY NEWS - OCTOBER 2003

MEDIA CONTACT: Stacia Smith
561-297-2971, ssmith@fau.edu
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FAU Continues Commitment to Diversity with New Initiative

BOCA RATON, FL (October 1, 2003) - William A. Covino, dean of Florida Atlantic University's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, announced the appointment of Clevis Headley to the new position of Special Assistant to the Dean for Diversity Initiatives. As the first in this position, Headley will work to strengthen ethnic studies at the College and develop the College's diversity profile.

"The appointment of Professor Headley to this position stresses our continuing commitment to the appreciation of human heritage, diversity and culture," said Covino. "Building community within a complex global society is at the heart of the College mission."

Some of Headley's duties will include directing the ethnic studies certificate program; exploring the possibility of an Africana studies program; encouraging diversity initiatives that affect student recruitment and retention; facilitating the consideration of ethnic, racial and gender diversity as elements of the College curriculum and working with faculty on pedagogical and curricular development.

Headley has been a philosophy professor at FAU for ten years. He received his undergraduate degree at The University of the South in Tennessee, and received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Miami.

"It is important for a University as well-known as FAU to offer students the opportunity to study those aspects of human existence that contribute to our identity and provide our lives with meaning," said Headley. "Students should seriously study ethnicity and critically understand the complexity of diversity."

For more information about diversity initiatives at FAU, contact Clevis Headley at
561-297-3920.
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