New dean at UMass works against urban poverty
Yawu Miller
Adenrele Awotona was trained as an architect, but never quite took
to the discipline as well as many of his colleagues. While other
architects balanced their interest in rebar and concrete with their
interest in the people who live, work and shop in their buildings,
Awotona was more exclusively interested in the people.
After serving as director of graduate programs in architecture,
urban development and urban studies at the University of Newcastle
and as the dean of the School of Architecture at Southern University,
he headed north for UMass Boston where he is the new dean of the
College of Public and Community Service.
“I’ve always been interested in development from the
social sciences angle, not so much from the angle of economics,”
he said, interviewed in his office at UMass Boston. “I’m
more interested in grassroots organizing, in the economically weak
members of society.”
In CPCS, Awotona may have found his perfect match. In a university
that was founded to serve an urban mission of bringing higher education
to the working class public, CPCS is perhaps the most radical arm.
The college was founded to provide research and advocacy for its
surrounding communities.
CPCS focuses on non-traditional students and allows work experience
to count as course credits. According to a CPCS web page, “the
college’s curriculum and practice are centered on the study
of urban reality and positive social change.”
Since Awotona arrived in July, he has set about the task of acquainting
himself with the city, not by surveying architectural points of
interest or the built environment, but rather by sitting down with
as many activists, social service agency heads and community stakeholders
as possible.
“It was important for me to very quickly understand the context
of the community in which I am working,” he said.
So far, Awotona has been well-received by community members, according
to Horace Small, who heads the Union of Minority Neighborhoods.
“I get the sense that he wants to take the department to a
whole new level,” Small said. “This could be an entity
that could help educate people about how to be active and engaged
in their community.”
Awotona takes the reins at CPCS after a period of great turbulence.
Under former Chancellor Jo Ann Gora, former Dean Ismael Ramirez
Soto resigned the post after he was unable to negotiate a contract
for the position. Soto and others in CPCS were openly critical of
Gora, often airing their grievances in the media.
The protests were quieted after Gora left in 2004 to head Ball State
University in Indiana.
CPCS faculty have taken a wait-and-see attitude with their new dean,
according to one professor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“I think everybody is hoping he will be good for us,”
the faculty member said. “We’ve been battered. We feel
that this administration doesn’t understand us. We feel like
we could be easy prey if [Awotona] doesn’t support us.”
Awotona, who has appointed CPCS faculty as liaisons to different
communities in Boston, says he is working well with the faculty
and is committed to using the college for the betterment of the
Boston community.
“I strongly believe one of the best ways to address urban
poverty is through education and training,” he said.
Awotona says he plans to step up recruitment at CPCS, working with
community colleges to help channel students into the school. He
has met with the ant-poverty group ABCD and its Urban College.
“I want to work in partnership with the various agencies to
move our communities forward to a better standard of living.”
While keeping a focus on local issues, Awotona is maintaining a
focus on international development issues, utilizing contacts he
has developed during his decades-long career in academia, working
with the United Nations and the European Union. A conference he
is organizing on post-war Iraqi development is drawing academics
from countries including Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and England.
“In my first life, I did a lot of work internationally,”
Awotona commented.
Ultimately, the solutions to poverty in the United States and in
Iraq are linked, according to Awotona.
“There’s no way you can address local issues without
linking them to international issues,” he said. “Whatever
we do here affects people elsewhere.”
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