The Multicultural Student Services Center hired a new director and two staff members this summer after months of leadership vacancies, officials announced in a release Thursday.
The MSSC concluded its five monthslong search for a director and hired an associate director and program coordinator for race, ethnicity and culture over the summer, according to the release. The recruitments follow complaints from students and former staff about continuous staff turnover and low funding, which they said in February stifles the center’s ability to provide support for student organizations.
Officials hired Vanice Antrum, the former director of multicultural affairs in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Salisbury University, as the new MSSC director in July to replace interim Director Mitchell Foster, who left the University in June. Foster is now the Director of the Intercultural Center at Saint Mary’s College of California, as per their LinkedIn.
Officials appointed Foster as the center’s interim director in February following former director Dustin Pickett’s resignation Feb. 1 after one year in the role. Pickett had replaced former MSSC Director Michael Tapscott, who retired in June 2022 after serving in the role for 19 years.
Antrum said in the release that she will prioritize “uplifting” the voices and experiences of students from historically excluded backgrounds at GW. She said she is excited to work with the MSSC team to ensure students have the resources needed to “feel a true sense of belonging” at the University.
“We will continue to prioritize providing a safe, inclusive, intellectually challenging and supportive space with a focus on the intersections of student identities,” Antrum said in the release.
There are now four full-time staff members at the MSSC in addition to a graduate assistant for student belonging and community engagement, according to the MSSC’s staff page. Following Pickett’s resignation in February, Student Program Associate Elise Greenfield was the only full-time staff member in the center.
Hannah Youssef, the assistant director and former program associate of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Belonging in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University, joined the MSSC as the assistant director in July, according to her LinkedIn.
Youssef said in the release that she hopes to implement programming and resources that will improve students’ “quality of life.”
“My motivation has both evolved and remained the same: to create spaces and resources for students to thrive as their most authentic, joyful and complex selves,” Youssef said. “I believe in a holistic approach to educational equity and social justice, as students cannot academically or professionally succeed without basic needs fulfillment and mental, emotional and spiritual wellness.”
Hailey Williams, a former graduate intern in affiliate organizational management equity and inclusion at the American Civil Liberties Union, joined the University in July as the MSSC’s program coordinator for race, ethnicity and culture, according to her LinkedIn.
Williams said in the release that she is excited to help identity based student organizations “flourish” by giving them the support needed to grow.
“As a part of the MSSC team, I will support and develop programs that promote racial, ethnic and cultural equity and work to foster an inclusive and empowering environment for marginalized students and communities at GW,” Williams said.
Tapscott said in February that the unit has struggled with staffing since 2019, when officials removed the administrative coordinator and program coordinator roles from the formerly five-person full-time staff. He said soon after, the MSSC became an “uncomfortable” place to work.
Caroline Laguerre-Brown, the vice provost of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement — which houses the MSSC — left ODECE in July after eight years at the University, and the role has remained vacant. Former Associate Director of the Multicultural Student LGBTQIA+ Resource Center AJ King left in December 2023 to become the director of Intercultural Affairs and LGBTQ+ Resource Center at Howard University.
In February, Robert Zayd KiaNouri-Zigmund, the former graduate assistant for religious and spiritual life at the Multicultural Student Services Center, left the MSSC.
In an op-ed published in The Hatchet in April, KiaNouri-Zigmund said he was “deeply concerned” about the continuous repression by University administrators of MSSC and the marginalized groups it advocates for. He said he resigned because he felt he could no longer carry out the mission of “advocacy, equity and justice for religious and spiritual communities at GW.”
The Division for Student Affairs officials announced the launch of the Center for Interfaith and Spiritual Life in June to expand religious and spiritual programming on campus.
The MSSC has programming scheduled this fall, including its annual Block Party on Aug. 30.
