The best time to be born as an African American in the United States was 1965, said Adrienne D. Davis, the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law at Washington University.
And that just happens to be the year she was born.
“Some people wonder about my racial optimism,” Davis said. “I was bred in this important moment when the nation was really open to this possibility of racial equality.”
Not only did her upbringing in a racially-accepting suburb of Washington, D.C. support that, but also her mentorship in law school at Yale University.
Washington University found the perfect position for Davis to let that optimism of racial and gender equality enhance its campus. On Dec. 22, Edward S. Macias, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, announced that Davis will become the university’s vice provost, beginning February 1.
In that position, which is new to the university, Davis will assist Macias in helping the university’s seven schools reach their diversity goals. And that includes recruitment.
“There’s a consensus that we need to do better,” Davis said. “There’s a consensus that we need to be as competitive at diversity as we are in the sciences and in the professionals schools.”
Davis joined Wash. U. in 2008 after visiting the university through the Distinguished Visiting Scholars program, a diversity-building initiative. She arrived on campus about the same time that Washington University gave an honorary academic degree to Phyllis Schlafly, a leader in the conservative movement who led a successful 10-year battle against the Equal Rights Amendment.
Davis, whose work focuses on law, gender and race, looked onto the community’s protests and stir on campus with great interest, she said. In discussions, the students and faculty called for more diversity. Taskforces were created, and proposals were made.
One of them was to reinstate the provost position, which had been dormant for 14 years. Now one of Provost Macias’ highest priorities is diversity, and through taskforce recommendations and seeds planted by other university personnel, he had ripe ground to implement change, she said.
Looking at the university’s long history, it has not been as diverse as it should be, said Jim McLeod, vice chancellor for students and an African American. McLeod headed the committee that selected Davis for the position.
“Adrienne Davis’ position is an effort to give new ideas, innovations, and initiative and thereby make progress quicker,” McLeod said. “Her leadership will make a real difference.”
While each academic department has its own diversity programs, the Provost’s office works with all of the deans to make sure targeted funds are getting used to facilitate diversity, particularly among faculty. Macias initiated diversity grants for faculty and staff, which has brought about numerous lecture series and programs. He posted Gender Pay Equity Reports for all the university’s schools to the provost website. The reports show that Wash. U. female faculty members make less on average than the university’s male faculty members.
The Provost’s office works with people like Will Ross, M.D., the associate dean of diversity for Washington University School of Medicine and associate professor of medicine.
“While we have made progress in the recruitment of underrepresented medical students and residents, we still fall short in our efforts to expand faculty diversity at the medical school compared to institutions of similar rank, such as Harvard and Stanford,” Ross said.
School of Medicine Dean Larry Shapiro, M.D., and the department heads have responded by funding the Faculty Scholars, a program to recruit and retain faculty from underrepresented groups, Ross said.
“The appointment of Professor Davis, an African-American female, to vice provost is a testament to the university’s commitment to achieving diversity at all ranks of academia,” Ross said.
Prior to coming to Wash. U., Davis was the Reef C. Ivey II Research Professor of Law at University of North Carolina. The friendly community of Chapel Hill was hard to leave, she said, but once she spent four days in St. Louis she fell in love.
“Spending fours days here, I really got to see how special the place was and that it was a place I would really enjoy living,” Davis said. “We bring people through the (Distinguished Visiting Scholars) program each year, and I think we could be even more strategic.”
The potential of working with Kent Syverud, the dean of the law school, also sparked her interest. He is widely regarded as one of the best deans of his generation, she said.
Since being on faculty at Wash. U., her scholarship has flourished, and Syverud has been supportive of all her projects and partnerships across campus, she said. Davis directs the Black Sexual Economies Project at the law school’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Work and Social Capital. This is a working group of eight scholars from seven U.S. research universities who are in the fields of Law, English, African Diaspora Studies, Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Film & Media Studies, History, and American Studies.
Designed as a four-year working group, the project’s goal is to craft new paradigms for thinking about race, gender and sexuality through open dialogue. The group will present their published research at a public conference in 2012-13.
In 2009 Davis also founded the Law & Culture Initiative at the law school to facilitate scholarly engagement and exchange on the intersection of legal, cultural, and other interdisciplinary studies. She holds courtesy appointments in African & African-American Studies, History, and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies in Arts & Sciences.
Davis is optimistic about possibilities at Wash. U., she said. Besides its prestigious scholarship, it is one of the few universities at its level where people can come and teach and enjoy all the cultural benefits of a big city and yet still live affordably, she said.
“Wash. U. has weathered this downturn in the economy fairly well,” Davis said. “We are in a position to recruit and to continue to build up faculty and programs. We have the will to become more diverse; we just have to find people and encourage them to come here.”
