Moving up, moving out, moving home

Mark Edwards, assistant to the president for diversity, equity and community and associate vice provost for Student Affairs, left his position last week for a job as the Vice President of Student Affairs at Northern Oklahoma College.

“He got a promotion to be a vice president of student affairs which is something that he always wanted to do and he was able to get this position at a college that is located in Oklahoma which is his home state. So he was really able to accomplish two important things with this one action,” said Bruce Pitman, dean of students.

Pitman said that although Edwards enjoyed his work here and functioned at a high level in the president’s office, he had wanted to return to Oklahoma for quite some time.

“Mark was the lead administrator at the University of Idaho to guide the university in diversity and human rights issues and programs,” Pitman said. “He had a duel reporting arrangement where he reported directly to the president for a number of important tasks and promoting campus wide education programs. In addition he held an assignment in student affairs where he supervised a number of units.”

Edwards was the direct supervisor for Diversity, Equity and Community on campus and oversaw several offices including the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Native American Student Center, the Women’s Center/LGBQTA office and the College Assisted Migrant Program.

Eddy Ruiz, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, has worked closely with Edwards for the past year.

“He oversaw our four offices and also worked on diversity issues across campus. He was our chief diversity officer for the U of I campus,” Ruiz said. “He had a vision of making the campus welcoming and inclusive of all forms of diversity on campus and was willing to fight for it and let those issues be known whether supporting students indirectly or directly through our offices or just getting those critical issues on the table with the higher up administration.”

Pitman said he was not surprised by Edwards’ departure, but was stunned by how quickly the transition took place.

“It was very quick,” Pitman said. “He and I had talked about this possibility for about six weeks or so and I had the privilege of being a reference so I had talked to the people who were considering hiring him so it was not a complete surprise to me.”

A farewell reception was held Thursday, June 7 and Edwards officially left the university on June 8.

“We’re losing a staff person who has great passion about diversity and social justice issues. We’re losing a person who had many years of experience working in this area. We’re losing a person who had much sensitivity and has much sensitivity about student success issues and we’re losing a good friend,” Pitman said.

Carmen Suarez, director of human rights, access, and inclusion, has been named the interim successor while university officials seek a replacement for Edwards.

Edwards could not be reached for comment.

Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]

About the Author

Kaitlyn Krasselt ASUI beat reporter for news Freshman in broadcast and digital media Can be reached at [email protected]

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