U of A provost finalist: Keep DEI commitment without drawing retaliation

The first finalist for the University of Arizona’s provost position, Eric Landon Barker, listed collaborating, driving innovation, enhancing student learning, establishing trust, and promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, shared governance and free speech as his values.

Barker, at a public forum Tuesday with faculty and staff, said he hoped to be asked a question — and he was — about DEIA in the current climate of the Trump administration demanding that universities stop DEIA-related activities or lose federal funding.

“I understand this is embedded in your identity as a Hispanic-serving institution, the important partnerships that you have with Native nations, and we see what is happening at the state, local and federal level, and the threats that are coming towards us,” said Barker, who is vice president for health affairs and dean of the pharmacy college at Purdue University. “So, we have to figure out a path forward to maintain and grow that commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.”

A Hispanic-serving institution is federally defined as a not-for-profit institution of higher learning with undergraduate student enrollment that is at least 25% Hispanic.

The UA deleted the words “diversity and inclusion” from its land acknowledgement statement and took down two of its DEIA-related websites in February after the Trump administration’s orders.

When asked how he will “protect, fund and foster cultural centers and affinity groups” for students on campus, Barker said he would “lean into being creative” on how to implement DEIA, and that the UA’s status as a land grant university gives it more freedom to operate than other universities.

“We have, in our charter, a commitment to first-generation students. We have a charter essentially to diverse students. We will have to clearly be more cautious about what we talk about, how we post things. We don’t want to be targets for vindictive legislatures,” he said.

“They can issue executive orders that change how we talk about things, but they cannot legislate away our commitment as individuals to the ideals and mission associated with DEIA,” he said, emphasizing the need to protect the people who work in DEIA-related jobs at universities.

Barker is the first of four finalists for provost to be brought to campus for in-person interviews. The UA has not yet released the names of the other three, who also will hold public forums. The second candidate’s forum will be March 20, the third’s March 27and the fourth’s March 31.

The provost is the senior academic officer who oversees the faculty and the university’s academic mission.

UA faculty and staff questioned Barker on the impacts of Trump’s federal orders, shared governance between administrators and faculty, enrollment challenges, diversity and inclusion, online education, the UA’s Hispanic-serving identity and more at the forum.

“I see what we do at a land-grant university as planting seeds, cultivating those seeds, and then celebrating the successes of the work,” said Barker, addressing about 50 faculty and staff members who attended the “open forum” in-person and about 350 who joined in online through Zoom.

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“We see that in our faculty, as we invest in faculty and see the outputs from their scholarly and creative works. We see that in our students who come to us,” he said. “…I am committed to the land-grant mission, and I believe that all of the resources are here at University of Arizona to allow (us) to fulfill the land-grant mission at the highest level of excellence, and to really achieve a vision of what a 21st century land-grant university can be.”

Land-grant colleges and universities, originally created to focus on agricultural and technical education, are designated to provide a broad segment of the population with practical skills.

At Purdue, Barker has carried out responsibilities including aligning health and life science undergraduate, graduate and professional programs, and helping to accelerate health research to drive innovation and entrepreneurship.

A professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology, he has had a “very robust academic research background, focusing on the molecular mechanisms associated with drugs of abuse and others that affect the brain,” said Lucinda “Cindy” Rankin, co-chair of the provost search committee with David Hahn, while introducing Barker at the forum.

Barker was asked how he would manage current strategic initiatives underway at the UA while implementing new strategic goals, in lieu of the UA’s recent shifts in leadership, budget deficit, and centralization of IT and HR processes.

“I believe excellence occurs through focus,” he responded. “And so, we want to be cautious about not trying to do too much, because then we lose focus, and then we’ll lose the ability to be excellent.”

Working on how to support colleges across campus and diverse disciplines, while also ensuring the focus is on building excellence and paying attention to new opportunities, is important, Barker said.

He was also asked to share direct examples of his commitment to supporting Hispanic-serving institutions and faculty, students and staff who come from historically underrepresented backgrounds. He said there is a fairly large Hispanic population at Purdue and administrators provided programs including academic success coaches, peer mentoring, peer learning groups, peer tutoring and academic advising.

Regarding enrollment, Barker said it is important to leverage the UA’s presence in the 15 counties and five Native nations where it is a trusted brand, and to work more closely with high schools to offer programs students need. He also mentioned tapping into adult learners as a huge population hungry for credentials or the sense of accomplishment of completing a degree.

Referring to the University of Arizona Global Campus or UAGC, Barker said he first wants to make sure there is a clear distinction in case of any duplicate programs, since it serves different populations. Second, he said it is important to remove the confusion between the two online presences that carry the UA brand, UAGC and Arizona Online. He also called for “thinking more holistically about online,” not as a standalone entity but as one that supports everything the UA does.

The provost search is being headed by a search committee of 13 members including administrators, professors, students and staff from different parts of campus, said Rankin.

After each finalist’s open forums, attendees will have the option of filling out a feedback survey on each, she said, which will then be submitted to UA President Suresh Garimella. Garimella will make the final decision in naming the next provost, Rankin said.

“When you think about the role of the provost, when I look at the umbrella that covers the kinds of things (the office handles), it’s so immense and it covers and touches every single piece of our institution — faculty, staff, students, programs, curricula, free speech, etc.,” said Rankin. “Everybody’s interested in that, (and in) how will we find the person that will handle that huge umbrella in a very good way that addresses the importance and value that all of us represent.”