Mizzou’s chief diversity officer will leave the school next month, UM president says
The University of Missouri-Columbia’s vice chancellor of its Division of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity will leave the school next month for a position at a historically Black college in Arkansas.
Maurice Gipson’s departure will be effective Aug. 15, according to an email sent to individuals on campus this week. Gipson will leave the school to serve as interim president of Philander Smith University in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Gipson’s departure comes as the university has seen significant turnover in similar positions. He was the fourth person tasked with overseeing diversity efforts at the university since 2015.
Gipson was hired in June 2020 to improve the campus’ culture of inclusion, according to the university. The university has struggled in recent years to attract and retain Black faculty members.
In that role, Gipson was tasked with recruiting and retaining students, faculty and staff as well as expanding programs that would encourage underrepresented groups to study and work.
In the email addressed to the “campus community,” UM System President Mun Choi said he was thankful for Gipson’s “leadership and accomplishments.”
“He has provided valuable counsel and led a team that has made many important contributions to student, faculty and staff success,” said Choi, who is also the chancellor of the University of Missouri-Columbia.
“Dr. Gipson and I have had frequent discussions about the need for a sustainable path forward given the growing developments affecting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs across the nation,” Choi said.
In the email, Choi said he and Gipson planned to meet with faculty, staff, students and alumni to “discuss these developments and the organizational changes that are needed to ensure continued success of our students, faculty and staff.”
The Columbia Missourian first reported Choi’s letter.
Gipson’s departure comes as the university has had a fraught relationship with race, including protests in 2015 that criticized inaction by university leaders after a string of incidents on campus.
Black students now make up only 5.45% of the student population while white students make up 76.4%, according to the most recent data online.
Last year, the University of Missouri System announced that it would be stopping all race-based admissions and race-based scholarships moving forward. The system covers four campuses in Columbia, Kansas City, St. Louis and Rolla.
However, Choi told reporters at the time that the system would continue to honor current scholarships that had a racial component.
The decision happened after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the race-based admission policies of the University of North Carolina and Harvard College. It also followed a letter from Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who demanded that colleges in the state immediately end all affirmative action policies.
Missouri’s Democratic members of Congress — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, and Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat — condemned the move at the time, arguing the Supreme Court did not expressly prevent colleges from having race-based scholarships.
The UM System last year also scrapped its use of diversity statements in its hiring practices and announced standardized language that leaders can send to prospective employees.
That announcement came as lawmakers in the GOP-controlled General Assembly weighed legislation aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring standards. State lawmakers have in recent years taken aim at diversity practices across the state.
Before coming to the university, Gipson was the vice chancellor of Diversity and Community Engagement at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Mississippi, a law degree from Southern University Law Center in Louisiana and degrees from Missouri State University and Louisiana State University.
