As the inaugural Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Partnership Manager at the University of Utah — and one of the first to hold this position nationwide — Rodney T. Cohen, EdD (he/him) will partner with university academic units in the planning, programming, design, and maintenance of exchange/intern/rotational/teaching/research and other partnerships with HBCU’s in an effort to recruit, retain, and promote diverse talent at the University of Utah and across our local community.
Dr. Cohen will work with the University of Utah’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion leadership and Office of the President to advance the national presence of the University of Utah by identifying and establishing partnerships and programs with university organizations and HBCU’s aligned with the University of Utah mission and vision. He will also frequently consult with already established HBCU partnerships at the University of Utah regarding their partnership status and changes, as well as coordinate with units to ensure the vitality and success of programs.
Pamela Bishop: Hello, everyone. I’m Pamela Bishop, the senior director of marketing and communications for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. And I am so thrilled today to be speaking with Rodney Cohen, who is the HBCU partnership manager just joining the U.
Rodney’s job is an inaugural position, and I think he will be fantastic for this job. He’s got a very experienced background working with HBCU’s, but I want to let Rodney introduce himself and just sort of tell us about yourself and really what attracted you to come to Utah to do this position for HBCU’s.
Rodney Cohen: Well, thank you, Pamela. I’m happy to be here, and as you said, this is an inaugural position. It really struck me when I saw this position. It’s very unique, I think, in the context of higher education, and I’m excited to take on this task.
I’m a native of Atlanta, Georgia, born and raised there. Actually, Pamela was raised for the most part on historically Black college campuses. Both of my parents were graduates of Clark College in Atlanta and very active in the college scene. So as far back as I can remember, I spent a lot of time in Atlanta University Center and the various campuses, and particularly my parents’ alma mater. I have siblings and other relatives who attended not only there, but other HBCU’s around the country, so it kind of has been a part of my DNA, if you will, and higher education in general as well.
As you mentioned, I have a lot of experience at historically Black colleges and universities, but have also worked in a lot of majority institutions too, which also includes professional schools, such as medical schools. Much of my interest is also translated into some writings that I’ve done. My doctoral dissertation at Vanderbilt actually was about historically Black colleges looking at alumni giving at HBCU’s, and I also parlayed some of that and took additional passion and crafted two books on histories of HBCU’s, one entitled “The Black Colleges of Atlanta” on the Atlanta University Center, and also “Fisk University,” where I have worked as well, both in Arcadia Press.
So when I saw this opportunity, to be honest with you, I said I felt as though I wrote the job description, because you’re kind of blending both worlds, you know, and also it includes a bit of outreach within the community, which I’ve done a lot of and really enjoyed doing and really connecting those pieces, not only just with the HBCU’s and the youth, but also connected entities and pieces throughout the university as well.
You know, and I think that this is going to be a science and an art. I think that is something that’s going to be enjoyable. And I think that because this is a novel position and in my opinion, as I survey the terrain of higher education, I think this is a very unique position in higher education. And as we begin, evolve and change in the collegiate format, I think this has an opportunity to be a model down the road for other institutions.
So I’m honored to be here. Thrilled to work with you all and others around the campus. And, you know, coming from Atlanta to Salt Lake City, the furthest west that I’ve lived is Texas. I’ve lived in several states. So I can acclimate pretty well, but I’ve never lived in the Mountain West, if you will. So I’ve been getting used to the time zone, which is good.
I must say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised thus far with what I’ve seen in Salt Lake City and the people that I’ve met. And I’ve also been pleasantly surprised that I’ve met people from a diverse background. You know not only just racially, ethnically, but also geographically. So it seems like a bit of an interesting melting pot of people coming here for a number of reasons, not just to the U, but also in the corporate and technological community as well. So looking forward to it.
Pamela Bishop: Absolutely. Well, you know, we’re thrilled to have you. I understand how it is to relocate. I relocated myself from Atlanta, and I always tell everyone, “well, now you know someone in Mountain Time Zone.”
Rodney Cohen: Yeah.
Pamela Bishop: Awesome. It’s good. You’ll enjoy it out here. You’re going to get really used to the weather. And it’s going to be great. Having moved out here, you know, a few years ago myself. I saw so much opportunity out here in Salt Lake City and at the U. Tell me, what do you see as the biggest opportunity for your role?
I agree with you. I think it is an opportunity to be a model for how majority institutes, how they relate to and how they work with HBCU’s and forgive me, historically Black colleges and universities, for those who are not familiar with the term, how do you see the opportunity here and how for your role at the U?
Rodney Cohen: Yeah, that’s an excellent question. I’m glad you emphasized HBCU. And again, for those who don’t know stands for historically Black colleges and universities, which have been around as early as 1836 and 1854, with Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. For those of us who either attended HBCU’s or have had interaction with them, have known, Pamela, that we’ve been doing great work for a number of years, this is nothing new. Many of these, you know, a handful of these institutions were founded before the Civil War. Most of them founded in 1860s, ’70s, ’80s, some at the turn of the century.
In recent years, as we well know for a number of reasons HBCU’s have come in to the forefront, in the limelight. So now it is becoming mainstreamed, if you will, in terms of the general public at large learning about these institutions and the products that they have produced over the years.
So I think that, you know, when you think about R1 institutions like the University of Utah and other institutions, this is an opportunity for us to do some serious collaboration that goes both ways. You know, we think about collaborative research, faculty-student exchange, but it’s also an opportunity, particularly in this case, for HBCU students to be exposed to a plethora of institutions — like the U — they never might have considered, you know? And those opportunities can really be enriching not only from an educational perspective, but also too from a cultural perspective, right?
And I always tell people, you know, one of the things I’ve always enjoyed personally about experiencing different communities and different geographies in it, I believe helps to round people out. It allows you really to interact with people in a very genuine and authentic way, and it allows you to appreciate not only where you come from, but appreciate where others come from and what they bring to the table as well.
And it also helps to break down barriers. Those differences also help us to expand the work that we’re working on because it is important for people who come from unique environments to bring an interesting perspective to the table. Also, too, when you think about a program like this or this kind of situation, it also provides an opportunity for the local community to benefit from it, you know?
So think about those individuals who, like myself, probably would have never considered Salt Lake City as a destination. It allows those individuals to say, “hey, you know, I’m here for the summer doing research, or here in this particular program with a HBCU initiative. You know what? This is an alright city. This is an alright community. And this is a community I may want to be a part of.” So, yeah.
Pamela Bishop: Yeah, I think you summed it up. I do have a question that really– tell people why they should be interested in partnering with an HBCU. A lot of people think when they think HBCU, they somehow think, you know, potentially substandard or their unknown, or unproven, or anything like that. Tell us a little bit about what HBCUs produce and why someone at the U … it would be beneficial for them to work with an HBCU.
Rodney Cohen: Right. Right. So as I mentioned before, HBCU’s are not new to the scene. We’ve been around since 1854 as degree-granting institutions with Lincoln University in Pennsylvania; schools like Howard; and even your alma mater, Oakwood, down in Alabama; the Atlanta University Center; Xavier University, who produces the largest number of African Americans going into the medical field for the last 20 or 30 years running; schools like North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where we have astronauts, engineers. And A & T has been the largest producer of African American engineers in the country. We have schools like Morehouse College. It has been the largest producer of African American men receiving doctorates. We have institutions like Fisk University, the alma mater of W.E.B. Du Bois and Nikki Giovanni and John Lewis, the Civil Rights leaders who per capita has more African Americans to go on to get Ph.D’s in the natural sciences.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, what I just mentioned.
So this is why those worth their weight in gold really need to pay attention to HBCU’s, because this is the kind of work we’ve been doing for this amount of years and to many people has been under the radar for those that are not aware. And you’re talking about institutions that in many cases have limited resources, in comparison.
So there’s always been this notion of how can these institutions do so much with so little, you know? So there’s something very special about these institutions. And one of the things that I must point out is that although they are defined as historically Black colleges and universities, and historically the lion’s share of the students have been of African American descent, it’s not homogenous. I mean, even though many are of African Americans descent, it ranges the spectrum in terms of background and geography.
Another thing too Pamela, which is very interesting, is now we find that many other students from other communities and ethnicities are now seeing the value in these types of institutions. I mean, you have many individuals who talk about their unique experiences at historically Black college, who are not of African American descent and talk about not only the rich education but also the welcoming environment, the family environment. They’re not treated as different, that sort of thing.
So I think not just academically from a research perspective, but there’s something unique about these institutions that I think that our majority institutions — be it colleges and universities or the corporate community — really need to glean from and learn some interesting things from.
Pamela Bishop: Absolutely. I’m glad that we have you as such a great ambassador for HBCU’s, not only to the university but for the university.
Rodney Cohen: Thank you.
Pamela Bishop: And I think that’s great– that was what is so great about your background is that you not only have lived the experience, you’ve worked in the experience, and you’ve also worked with majority institutions. So you know where the holes, for lack of a better term, are on both sides of the equation. So I think you’re the perfect person to come in and help to fill in some of those gaps.
How do you plan to work with organizations throughout the U? The U is a very big, large, decentralized sort of organization, if you will. And so tell me, how can people work with you? How do you plan to work with those that, you know, in the vastness of the U here in your role?
Rodney Cohen: I would start out by saying relationships, relationships, relationships. First and foremost, the key is going to be to develop those real key relationships with different departments, faculty members, staff, and others throughout the institution. I’ve had an opportunity, as you mentioned before, to work at large-size institutions and work across institutional lines.
So part of my experience allows me to one, begin to communicate across institutional lines, understand what that language is, and understand, you know, where some of the needs and wants are with different entities and departments and institutions. But I think the key to all of this, not only internally but also externally — meaning the Salt Lake Community, meaning the 100+ HBCU community — is about establishing those critical relationships, sustaining those relationships and really have an authentic interaction with those entities.
Pamela Bishop: You’re absolutely right. I am just– I can’t even begin to tell you as an HBCU alum, I’m thrilled to see you here. I’m thrilled to see that the university that I work with has seen the insight to bring in someone of your caliber to this role. You know, as you begin anything, you being the inaugural position, you are the trailblazer. You are the pioneer — that’s the word we love to use here in Utah — in building this, what HBCU presence will be at the U.
I know others have been working on it and we, you know this is not to– this is to really just bring it all together and make it even bigger and stronger and better. So I’m excited about having you here. I think the U is going to gain valuable knowledge and partnerships through your relationships, as you indicated.
So I think– I know you’re housed in the BCC, so you’ll be sitting in the Black Cultural Center, but I know that you will be throughout the university campus. So if you want to know how to get in touch with Rodney, please just check out our website, diversity.utah.edu/our-team, and you will find Rodney there and how to reach him.
But thank you so much for spending this time with us and I look forward to working with you and helping you get acclimated to the U in any way that you need.
Rodney Cohen: Pamela, I want to say thank you to you. And I’m looking forward to working with everyone, and as you mentioned, I implore everyone to feel free to reach out to me. I’ve already had an opportunity to meet some key folx in Salt Lake City, and there’s a lot of excitement and I think we’re ready to get moving.
Pamela Bishop: Awesome. Thank you so much.
