Ozzie Harris II '81, the Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity, and Director of the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity, clarified the reasons for his resignation after serving the College for 14 years with a statement released last Wednesday, citing "philosophic differences" with the College.
Harris offered his resignation in the fall and agreed to leave at the end of the Winter term.
"Philosophic differences led me to conclude that I couldn't be an effective senior leader, so I resigned as a result of that," Harris said.
Harris said that he was not comfortable expanding on his statement.
"I'm trying not to be negative," Harris said.
The statement differed from the previous statement released by the College which attributed his resignation to his father's ill health. Harris, who said he saw the College's release, confirmed that his father was ill but said that he resigned because of his differences with the College.
The College has to continue to work on diversity issues, according to Harris.
"This isn't about Dartmouth, this is about the nation as a whole," Harris said. "Dartmouth is just representative. Some places do a fair job of it and some places aren't so hot.
"What do we really want and how badly do we want it? What I've been able to discern from travelling to college campuses is that we're willing to put up with a gap between what we say we want and what we actually want," he said.
College President James Wright, who said he was unaware of Harris' statement and declined to comment on it, said that Harris is an exceptional, hardworking man.
"I think his legacy is one of a deep understanding of the institution and a commitment to making Dartmouth a stronger and more welcoming place to all those who come here," Wright said.
Wright admitted that the College needs to improve its support for diversity.
"There are two pieces here. One is our ability to recruit and admit students and workers who represent the diversity of American life, and the second is to support and retain those people who we do recruit, and I think we do less well in that regard than we than we do in the initial admitting and recruiting," Wright said.
Michelle Meyers, director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, has replaced Harris as the interim director of the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity until the College finds a new replacement.
"She and I need to talk about some ways in which we can proceed to provide support for that office," Wright said.
There will be a search committee to find a replacement, but the College's focus now is on supporting the office to ensure that it continues to provide services, Wright said.
Harris joined Dartmouth as Assistant Director of the Office of Financial Aid in 1992. He was the associate director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action from 1993 to 1998 and was appointed director of that office in 1999 before being appointed Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity in July 2001.
