Trinity recently appointed Brandi P. Jones as the inaugural Vice President for Inclusive Engagement. The search began in Jan. 2023, when Trinity appointed a search committee to look for a suitable candidate for this role in order to further the university’s mission to create a campus culture of belonging and inclusion. Jones will start her position in March 2024.
Announced on the university’s website on Jan. 24, Jones’ role will center on Trinity’s values of intentional inclusion and inclusive engagement. She will work with both the Trinity and San Antonio community in order to build greater connections between them. Andrew Wells, vice president for student affairs, commented on the purpose of the new position.
“It’s about ensuring that our door is open, we’re a welcoming space and that we are aware of and enacting our commitment to being engaged members of the community, and not just a little bubble on the hill of privilege,” Wells said.
It’s not only faculty that feel like the Trinity community is stuck in a bubble. Nicole Covarrubias, senior political science major, also commented on the need to look beyond Trinity’s campus.
“I think it is really easy to get lost in our Trinity bubble that we can forget that there is more beyond our campus,” Covarrubias said. “I feel that projectwise it would be nice to establish more relationships with organizations in the San Antonio community.”
Wells used the recent MLK commemorative lecture and the Student Diversity and Inclusion Office (SDIO) Black History Tour as examples of projects that align with the mission of inclusive engagement. He noted that these projects put students and faculty members in community with each other as well as members of the greater San Antonio community.
Covarrubias remarked that Trinity students can learn a lot from these kinds of experiences. “Students need to hear the voices of people they don’t always encounter,” Covarrubias said.
Members of SDIO also expressed how they felt about Trinity adding the new role of vice president of inclusive engagement, including Catherine Fragoso, the interim director for student inclusion, engagement and belonging.
“SDIO is excited to interact with Dr. Jones who is an experienced leader in DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) efforts,” Fragoso wrote in an email. “Our goal is to focus on belonging, to ensure that all students of Trinity feel a sense of belonging, understand what intentional inclusion means and live out that core value.”
In addition to her specific role, Jones will also serve as a member of Trinity’s Executive Leadership Team that reports to the president. This team includes roles such as Vice President for Student Affairs, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Vice President for Alumni Relations and Development, along with others.
As part of the overall strategy to focus on intentional inclusion, Wells discussed why the university is moving the title of SDIO to student belonging.
“The idea is it’s about belonging. It’s not just about having a racially diverse, culturally diverse, compositionally diverse campus because that’s just numbers.” Wells said. “I’m gay, and there might be 100 other gay people on our campus. That doesn’t mean I feel belonging as a gay person, right?”
Wells and Fragoso both prioritized listening to what the student body wants for the university’s inclusion efforts. Jones won’t be the only new employee who will be listening to students to integrate into the Trinity community, though.
“A new Assistant Director of SDIO, Jessica Montenegro, has just started at Trinity this past Monday, Feb. 5,” Fragoso wrote. “Jessica will be doing a listening tour with the cultural and identity based student organizations.”
Covarrubias noted that inclusive engagement with the San Antonio community can have benefits after graduation as well. “It’s great for building relationships that will be beneficial even after students graduate, for example, when looking for jobs or internships,” Covarrubias said.