SAN FRANCISCO ― When Dr. Kathleen Wong(Lau) was recruited for a job as a chief diversity officer, she initially declined to apply. She felt fulfilled in her current post digging deep into diversity and inclusion issues at the University of Oklahoma (OU), where she has been for barely two years.
But upon learning that the job vacancy was in northern California, where she grew up and where many of her relatives still live, she changed her mind. Not only did Wong(Lau) apply, but she was hired to become the diversity chief at San Jose State University (SJSU).
Not that the job is any cakewalk, however.
SJSU has been rocked in recent years by revelations that, in 2013, a Black freshman was subjected to a string of hazing incidents—including a U-shaped bicycle lock being clamped around his neck—by White students living in the same dorm as the freshman. The White students, who have since been expelled, nicknamed him “three-fifths” and “fraction,” references to when African slaves were each counted as three-fifths of a White person for the purpose of giving additional congressional representation to slave-holding states when in fact slaves were still regarded as property.
