Diversity director takes job with IUP

Finding a position closer to his fiance & eacute; played into his decision.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University has lost its director of equal opportunity and diversity.
Jimmy Myers, who held the job since November 2003, has taken a similar post with Indiana University of Pennsylvania, joining former YSU Provost Tony Atwater, who is now president of IUP.
It will be a major change in environment for the Detroit native who has spent his career in cities and on urban college campuses.
"I'm kind of a city guy," Myers said, noting that IUP is a small-town campus, located in a city of about 15,000 people.
Myers was employed as the director of equity and diversity and affirmative action at the University of Michigan before coming to YSU. Before that, he was a regional director of the American Association for Affirmative Action, responsible for a six-state area.
What happened
He thought he would end his career at YSU, but a change in his life brought about the need for a change in location.
He will marry Dr. Lynda Lewis, the principal of a fine arts middle school in Pittsburgh, later this year. He met her here through Atwater and his wife, and the job offer at IUP came from Atwater, he said.
They were looking for a home between Youngstown and Pittsburgh but have now shifted their focus to somewhere between Pittsburgh and Indiana, Pa., Myers said.
"I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here. It's been wonderful. I've made some very good friends," he said, adding that the area has some of the most welcoming and genuine people he's ever encountered.
YSU and the community have a lot to offer, Myers said.
"It's a treasure ... that needs to be lifted up," he said.
He called his departure "bittersweet," noting that he will miss YSU but is looking forward to a new challenge.
He counts the creation of The Presidential Mentors program at YSU as one of his top accomplishments.
It's a group of upper-division students selected by a committee to serve two years as a mentor to the president of the university and his executive team, giving them regular direct contact with students.
It has completed its first two years and has proved to be a very effective group, Myers said.
There has been a concerted effort to identify his office as the place to go for anyone experiencing discrimination or harassment on campus. The office has run an educational campaign to make sure the campus community is aware of that service, and people have begun accepting the office as a resource on those issues, he said.
Diversity has been an important part of his work here.
"That's going to be an on-going process ... both on campus and in the community," he said.
Myers said he saw his job at YSU not as a supervisor but as someone whose task it is to eliminate barriers for the people who work with him.
"I do what I can to support their efforts," he said.
The people in his office are self-starters and very good at what they do, Myers said. They have to be the expert, the resource person for the campus community, he said.
gwin@vindy.com