October 14,1998

Contact: Louise Snider, 619/594-5204

 

SDSU appoints director of Diversity and Equity

A Washington, D.C., attorney, diversity leader, and civil rights advocate will become San Diego State University's first full-time Director of Diversity and Equity, President Stephen L. Weber announced today.

Susan Moss, who has been assistant to the chancellor for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater since 1992, will join SDSU on December 1.

Moss also served from 1979 to 1992 in the U. S. Department of Justice as director of the Legal Affairs Institute, a federal attorney-training institute. She also served as an attorney in the civil rights division of the Justice Department, where she specialized in Title IX civil rights issues concerning federally funded education programs.

"San Diego State is pleased to have such an experienced and talented diversity leader join us. Dr. Moss brings a deep commitment to social justice that will greatly benefit not only our students, faculty, and staff but also the community," Weber said.

President Kay Schallenkamp of Emporia State University, and formerly provost at UW-Whitewater, said, "Susan has an uncanny ability to frame an issue in a manner that is comprehensible to everyone. She is bright, articulate, and energetic, and will be an asset to the San Diego State University campus community."

Dr. Howard Ross, dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at Whitewater, said he had benefited from Dr. Moss' visionary leadership and unconditional support. "Dr. Moss has helped to transform the culture of the campus," he added.

Moss received her B.A. in history from Lewis and Clark College, her J.D. from American University, and her Ph.D. in educational administration (postsecondary) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In addition, she has taught writing, reading, and grammar in Washington, D.C., inner-city programs and has taught at the secondary and university levels in the Middle East and in Africa.

On her appointment, Moss said she is delighted to be joining SDSU. "The challenges will be great, but I see that SDSU has rich resources in its communities and a good purpose in the direction in which its students are leading. It is always members of the younger generation who look to and lead to the future, because they are the future.

"Our role as educators is to help provide them tools to make their way, against all odds, and sufficient to the greatest as well as to the humblest of their purposes. Part of that role is helping students understand their rights and responsibilities, first as students, then as citizens, so that they exercise them thoughtfully and usefully on their own behalf and that of their families and communities. To do that with integrity, we ourselves must model those principles in our own organizational behavior. If we can do that, then we have proved our worth as educators."

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