New African American Cultural Center director looks to improve campus community

New African American Cultural Center director looks to improve campus community

Campus-Community Relations, academics, African American, Angela Clark, Anna Gonzalez, center, cultural, Nameka Bates, Nathaniel Banks, Rory James, News

Article on Rory James, new director of Nesbitt Cultural Center.

Ivy Green

http://www.dailyillini.com/news/2010/07/20/new-african-american-cultural-center-director-looks-to-improve-campus-community

Daily Illini

20 July 2010

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Two years ago, Student Affairs and the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations put out a national search for a new director for the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (BNAACC) after Nathaniel Banks left to become director of Campus Community Interface Initiatives.

Two years ago, Student Affairs and the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations put out a national search for a new director for the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (BNAACC) after Nathaniel Banks left to become director of Campus Community Interface Initiatives. The search went a bit longer than expected.

After Banks’ departure, the University suffered from a hiring freeze due to lack of funding, which put the search on hold until March 2009. Since then, the center has been operating with a small staff, a few student workers and Acting Director Nameka Bates.

Last spring, Rory James was selected out of a national pool of candidates in late March 2009 as the new director of the BNAACC. He and three other candidates were choosen to come on campus for an extensive interviewing process with Anna Gonzalez, associate vice chancellor of Student Affairs, and a search committee of academic professionals and African American students on campus.

“During his interview process, I was very impressed and excited with his understanding about the culture center’s history and the African American experience at the University of Illinois,” said Angela Clark, BNAACC assistant program director.

Part of the interviewing process entailed public presentations and a series of meeting and interviews with the stakeholders and students on campus.

Founded 40 years ago, the BNAACC has served as a space on campus to show the promise and potential of African American students as well as educating the campus community and other races of the African American experience.

James, a Chicago native, earned his undergraduate degree in biology at Tuskegee University, a historically black college, and later completed a Masters of Public Health at Tulane University.

Before James came to Illinois, he served as the founding director of University of North Carolina at Ashville’s Intercultural Center.

One of James’ goals is to focus on addressing the needs of marginalized populations within the African American community such as gender, faith and religion, LBGT issues and academia.

“I want to make sure everything I am doing as a director will not only benefit the African American students and the community but the entire campus and the Champaign-Urbana community,” James said.

Growing up in Chicago, he said he learned that people sometimes are put in monolithic groups and he hope to break that grouping and get all students in touch culturally.

“James has really good insight about the changing needs of African American students,” Gonzalez said. “I think Mr. James is very forward thinking and this is why I believe the cultural center was built.”

James is looking to expand his services to ensure there is more diversity in the classrooms and that African American students have the tools they need to deal with issues through focus groups, student retreats, internships and collaborating with other colleges and universities.

“Everything appears overwhelming, but I am ready for the challenge,” James said. “I don’t think I would had taken this job if I did not feel I can do it.”