Starting in July of this year, current Dean of Admissions and Student Life, Arnett Chisholm, will become Dean of Student Diversity and Inclusion, a newly created position at the College.
Chisholm has had a long and impressive career working with WCC students. In 1988, he became the coordinator of the Eastern Regional Center, which is now known as the Harriet Street Center, located in Ypsilanti.
“It was in that role where I found out that one of my passions is working with students,” Chisholm said.
Within three years, he became a counselor at WCC. He spent a bulk of his career in that role—a total of eighteen years—providing personal, career, and academic counseling to WCC students.
When the Dean of Admissions and Student Life position opened up in the late 2000s, Arnett got a call from then-president Larry Whitworth that he was tapped for the job.
As a dean, Chisholm was able to work with larger groups of students and affect student life at a wider scale across the college.
He hopes for the same in his new role, just with more of a focus on diversity and inclusion.
“I want to be able to show how diverse we are and can be,” said Chisholm.
Another goal of his is to get more students involved in different aspects of the College, including faculty projects on campus and student groups. With a focus on inclusion, Chisholm doesn’t want people “to feel left out” at WCC.
He also likes the idea of creating more opportunities for learning communities at the college.
Many different models of learning communities exist, but they all aim to link or cluster courses and enroll a common cohort of students. Research has shown that learning communities support student success, especially for students from underrepresented backgrounds or at high risk of dropping out.
“I am very excited about the opportunity to bring something exciting to the College,” Chisholm said.
He has already received several calls from faculty and staff who are eager to collaborate with him, and he welcomes more. He can be reached at 734-973-3540 or [email protected].