By Hailey Murphy
Western, to replace the former student position of Resource and Outreach Program (ROP) Director, has hired Leti Romo as the Coordinator for Equity and Inclusion Resource Centers.
The ROP director used to be a student-bearing position. This student would oversee the programming of the ROP centers. However, there was usually a new student in the position every year, which affected the productivity of the ROP.
“What was happening in the past, when it was a student position… was turnover. So not necessarily every year there would be the same person as the director. So what was happening is that momentum… changes every time that there’s someone new in charge.”
Thus, a new position, Coordinator for Equity and Inclusion Resource Centers, was created.
Romo’s dutyies as coordinator is to assist the resource centers in any way possible. This includes helping the centers connect to the student body, helping the centers in their advocacy efforts and helping the centers grow into larger agents of change.
“[I] serve as someone who helps the resource centers connect not only to students and their programing and the advocacy that they do, but also connects them to the institution… my goal is, as I understand it, is to help the things… that the centers are doing for change, to continue on and grow from there.”
With her long history of working on college campuses, Romo is prepared for this job. Back in her undergraduate at Iowa State University, she was involved with the Minority Student Affairs office– their equivalent of a multicultural center– and the Student Support Services office. This was her first experience working with such resource programs. She also joined Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority Inc. during this time.
When she started as a graduate student at the University of Southern Florida, besides becoming a house mom for the sorority, she also started working as an advisor for students who were on the cusp of admission. These students would go through a trial summer prior to starting their degree program.
“It was a lot of students from urban areas,” said Romo. “I was working with students who, even though they were in gifted and talented in classes in high school, equivalent-wise, it wasn’t the same as other schools in wealthy areas so they weren’t as prepared for college as these students that were coming from these stronger educations. So I worked with them to get them transitioned and make sure they were at-par.”
After her time as an advisor, she worked in resident life for ten years, first at Humboldt University, then at University of California Irvine and lastly at Chapman University.
“When I was in that position, the institution [Chapman University] was going through a really negative time when it came to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Romo said.
However, a committee was formed to focus on issues of equity, inclusion and diversity at Chapman. Romo first was asked to be a part of that committee due to her experience from University of South Florida. She later became chair of that committee.
The development of this committee led to an effort to create Chapman University’s first center for underrepresented students, the Cross Cultural Center, with Romo leading the charge.
They were met with much resistance, as Chapman University President Jim Doti said there would never be a multicultural center so long as he was president because it would “ghettoize” the school.
As it turns out, Doti’s claims didn’t hold up. After two years of fighting, Romo and her fellow committee members got approval for the Cross Cultural Center. Romo left her position as Assistant Director to develop the Cross Cultural Center, which opened last February.
Yet, after months of working at the Cross Cultural Center, Romo desired a change of pace.
“I was at a point [where]… I was feeling really disconnected,” Romo said. “I wanted to slow down a little bit. I needed to make sure that I was focusing not just on my career but then also on my kids.”
This is how Romo ultimately came to be at Western. Now, after working here for one month, she’s learning all about Associated Students, ROP and the work of students here on campus. With this information, she’s questioning how the purpose of the ROP can be changed for the better.
“Do we want to be just programmers? Do we want to be advocates? Do we want to be both? Do we want to be something else? Do we want to be support? What do we want these centers to be? And then when we figure out the what and the why, then we can start building around that and making sure that we’re doing things that are reaching out… I hope that students at the centers here are able to be activists and advocates through their programming, through the spaces that they create here.” Romo said.
Additionally, Romo wants to increase connectivity between ROP and campus, both to assure that students are aware of these resources and also to improve the advocacy work of the ROP.
“I really want to be able to create relationships that are going to be meaningful and beneficial for not only the center but also for the person that we’re trying to collaborate with,” said Romo.
Relationships are particularly important to Romo. Not only the relationship between ROP and the rest of Western, but also the relationship between herself and students. She wants students to know that she’s available for help.
“I think a lot of times when we’re at an institution, especially with people who are underrepresented on campus or feel like they don’t belong, there’s not a lot of people who will listen to your truth as your truth… I try to make sure that I make space for everyone’s truth,” Romo said.
What Romo looks forward to in this position is being directly involved in student advocacy. When working at Chapman University, it was the administration initiating changes for students. At Western, particularly within AS, students incite change.
“One of the things that really drew me to this position… is how much there’s student activism here, and how the student voice has a level of bite to it. It’s very respected… The fact that AS would make sure to include resource centers is amazing. So to be able to further empower… to be there for support is really cool to me.”
Overall, Romo is adjusting to Western nicely. The cold has been a change– her kids had never seen snow before– but otherwise, things seem to be a good fit.
“When I got here to interview [it] was like my test of how it felt inside. Is this a fit, is this not a fit? And it felt like this was a good place for me. It felt like this is where I need to be,” Romo said.