8/16/02

GRENELL THRILLED WITH NEW JOB AT AUBURN UNIVERSITY

AUBURN -- Keenan Grenell puts it simply and directly.

"I think I have the most exciting job in higher education right now," says Grenell, Auburn University's new interim assistant provost for diversity and multicultural affairs.

With that preface, Grenell talks enthusiastically about opportunity born out of crisis, about his belief in AU's renewed commitment to diversity and about the charge given him by AU Interim Provost John Pritchett.

"I think some of the recent events here at Auburn have created an opportunity to make strides in the areas of diversity and multiculturalism that didn't exist before," Grenell said. "I hear and see a sense of commitment. But there's no question that we have a long way to go to get to where we want to be and there is a real potential for this office to become overwhelmed. I think Dr. Pritchett realizes that and he has incorporated some short-term structure in my charge to guard against that."

"We're going to ask an awful lot of Keenan," said Pritchett. "He came away from our first meeting with literally 10 pages of notes on what we expected from him in this position. He has shown in his first few days in this position that he has ample energy and ability to do what we expect and more."

Grenell said he's been asked to submit a detailed 10-week action plan. While he didn't reveal all of the plan's specifics, he said it would outline what his office would be doing each of those 10 weeks to meet specific diversity-related goals and objectives.

Some of the elements of the plan include the recruitment and retention of a diverse student body and, as a part of that, a close working relationship with the Office of Student Affairs.

"We want what we do in this office to have a strong focus on students here at Auburn," Grenell said. "As such, there is a great need for my establishing working relationships with the people in student affairs and identifying ways that we can help each other in meeting goals that are common to both of us -- recruiting and retaining a number of minority students that is more in tune with the overall population of the state."

Grenell also said he sensed the need for a new approach to running AU's Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.

"I'm going to have to be very aggressive, very strategic and I'm going to have to engage in some extensive resource mapping," he said. "First off, I need to identify what resources already exist at Auburn that we can learn from and build on to our desired ends. There is a lot of talent on this campus and we have to gather that talent together to help us recommit ourselves to diversity at Auburn."

Grenell will also be a key player in establishing the direction of Auburn's new diversity center at the James E. Foy Student Union.

"Many people across the campus have since my appointment been calling me with ideas about some of the programs we could build into the center," Grenell said. "The one thing that I would definitely like to see is some sort of service-learning opportunity, something that will serve to increase the exposure of white students at Auburn to diverse cultures and vice-versa. To me, programs along those lines have tremendous potential to bring a new appreciation to the kinds of attitudes and respect that are necessary for success in a world that is diverse and global. You might not change everyone, but if you change two or three, then that's two or three students who are ready to understand their role in a global society and, in turn, perhaps change the attitudes of two or three more people."

Grenell has been at Auburn since 1993, on the faculty of the Department of Political Science and was the first African-American director of the master's of Public Administration program among the 12 Southeastern Conference-member schools.

Recently, Grenell was a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, where he focused on increasing marketplace opportunities for Milwaukee's inner city residents.

His time at Auburn, he says, has given him the opportunity to learn the culture and the climate that exists on the campus. But he credits his experiences as a youth in Mississippi and a relationship developed at a campus much like Auburn for enabling him to see the issues -- and value -- of diversity from all sides.

"I was born and raised in Cleveland, Miss., where everything was done among your own race -- education, housing, socializing," Grenell said. "My father was the first elected official in Cleveland and many of his relationships with whites were adversarial. My mother was head of the English department at the predominantly black high school I attended. In Cleveland, my experiences were limited to other blacks."

Grenell attended traditionally black Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss., before moving on to Mississippi State University to work on his master's in public policy and administration. It was in Starkville, Miss., he met a man who would become a mentor -- and change his life.

"Gerald Gabris (now a professor in the division of public administration at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Ill.) sort of took me under his wing when I was at Mississippi State," Grenell said. "He become my mentor and my friend and really changed a lot of my opinions about how African-Americans and whites could and should coexist for mutual benefit. He got me my first job in Biloxi, Miss., and when he moved on to Northern Illinois, it was because of him that I went to NIU to get my Ph.D."

Before completing his doctoral work, Grenell had the occasion to introduce his mother and his mentor at a dinner at his home.

"You've got to remember that my mother's attitudes were shaped by her experiences in Cleveland," Grenell said. "But she had heard me talk about Dr. Gabris. And after we had eaten and talked a little, she looked over at him and said, 'You have restored my faith in humanity.'

"That's what we've got to do here at Auburn is make the most of our humanity and realize that, when we do, we all benefit."

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aug02:AU-grenell

CONTACT: Grenell, 334/844-6151.