After four months of serving as Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Calvin Hill will be leaving St. Thomas at the end of June.
Hill is moving back to Massachusetts where his family lives to take a position as vice president for inclusion and community engagement at Springfield College. He joined St. Thomas at the end of January and made the decision to leave for unexpected, health-related family reasons. He said he is sad to say goodbye to St. Thomas so soon.
“When I first took the position I was excited. It was a new opportunity. It was really in line with where I wanted to be,” Hill said. “It’s with much sadness that I’m leaving the institution. I definitely saw myself there for the long term. It’s something I’ve been struggling with. I didn’t come on board looking to leave so early.”
Vice President for Mission the Rev. Larry Snyder said Hill’s departure will leave a gap in the ranks, but his initiatives and approach to increasing diversity at St. Thomas will carry on.
“It’s a challenge for us. It’s a real challenge,” Snyder said. “Calvin came in, hit the ground running and started a momentum. He had a great momentum going. So now, the challenge for us is to maintain the momentum.”
Even though Hill was at the university for a short time, Snyder said he was a face well known around campus.
“Calvin is the kind of person who is everywhere and went to everything,” Snyder said. “Presence is a huge thing. If there was something happening on campus, especially diversity related, you know Calvin was going to be there. He had really started pulling folks together and looking at plans for taking St. Thomas to the next step as far as diversity goes.”
For Hill, working in the campus community wasn’t just another job. His relationships with students are something he said he’ll take with him. As far as the work he started, Hill hopes to make himself as available as possible to see it through.
“Bringing about increased awareness about diversity and inclusion within the community as a whole – my hope is to continue that work,” Hill said. “I definitely will be available to continue some of that. In no way does my resignation have anything to do with St. Thomas. It’s been an absolute wonderful place to be.”
Hill was also co-chair of the strategic plan’s Embracing Our Differences as One Human Family subcommittee with economics professor Robert Riley. As far as the future of this committee, Hill’s other roles and the position itself, Snyder said it could be a longer process to find a replacement.
“Ideally we want somebody that is of the same caliber that Calvin brought,” Snyder said. “It would be a mistake just to put somebody in there just to make sure we have somebody who then doesn’t measure up to university expectations. It’s not an ideal situation but it’s better than just putting things on hold.”
A decision has not been made, but it is likely that a current employee will fill the position in the interim while a longer search commences.
Even though Hill’s time at St. Thomas ended sooner than many expected, the experience impacted Hill as much as he changed St. Thomas.
“(St. Thomas) gave me an opportunity to work at what I would consider a world-class institution,” Hill said. “The opportunity to develop an office around diversity and inclusion and start that level of engagement around community involvement was truly amazing.”
Simeon Lancaster can be reached at lanc4637@stthomas.edu.
