At an open house in the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center last week, a packed room with more people than chairs welcomed the center’s new director, Monica Green.
A sorority sister from Alpha Kappa Alpha approached Green with a bouquet of flowers.
“Do you need a picture for your Instagram?” Green asked.
The pair posed arm-in-arm as someone snapped photos.
These interactions with students are one reason Green stood out as a candidate, said Gloria Howell, a Ph.D. student on Green’s selection committee.
“It was like she was magnetic to them,” Howell said.
Green started March 14, filling a vacancy open for about six months.
Stephanie Power-Carter left the position in August to work as a faculty member in the School of Education. Another candidate accepted the position in September but pulled out before they were announced as the new director.
Green came to IU from Hanover College, where she directed the Haq Center for Cross Cultural Education.
As director of the Neal-Marshall, Green said she hopes to focus on building relations with students and working on student development.
“I want to work with campus partners to really build some leadership development programming out of Neal-Marshall and just help overall with the exploration of black culture here,” Green said.
Yolanda Treviño, assistant vice president for diversity, equity and multicultural affairs, led the search for a new director.
Treviño said her department aims to retain more minority students. Minority students drop out of IU at higher rates than white students, according to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.
Green’s experience in Vanderbilt University admissions and her role in creating a social justice scholarship at Hanover College contributed to her selection, Treviño said.
Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, Green studied African American Studies as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt before attending Mississippi College for her master’s degree.
Green said she takes pride in her southern roots, and even after more than six years in Indiana, she still had a space heater in her office on a day reaching into 60-degree temperatures last week.
“My ‘y’all’s are real,” Green said, introducing herself at the open house. “And they come out a lot more when I am sleepy or hungry.”
Green is now working toward her Ph.D. in higher education leadership, and she focuses on microaggressions in her dissertation.
Green’s ease in discussing difficult topics made her a strong candidate, Treviño said.
“She was not afraid to have the critical conversations of what it’s like to be a person who is diverse and the intersections of what that means,” Treviño said. “There’s not just one side of who we are.”
Green said she wants to expand on programming at the Neal-Marshall, such as the black freshman pinning ceremony, an event intended to introduce first-year students to the center.
She said she hopes to add events at the center during the admissions process, welcome week and throughout students’ time at IU.
“I would like to build relationships with the people who support students from the time they apply to the time they graduate and become involved alums,” Green said.
Green’s appointment comes in the wake of Eric Love’s departure from his role as director of the Office of Diversity Education and at a time when race is a topic of conversation on college campuses across the country.
Green said she sees her role as listening to student voices and helping people receive messages from those different than themselves.
“To continue to grow as people and a country, to learn the importance of difference and diversity, it’s always important for people to speak up and be supported and heard in tough times,” Green said. “We’re seeing institutions come together to figure out how to uplift all their students on campus.”
