Idella Glenn

In an era marked by divisive rhetoric and polarizing debates, universities have a pivotal role in cultivating respectful dialogue among students. Few understand this better than Dr. Idella Glenn, Vice President for Equity, Inclusion, and Community Impact at the University of Southern Maine.

Max Webber, Co-Host of The Interview, sat down with Idella to discuss topics including her career journey so far, the importance of creating a welcoming environment for all students, and the challenge of engaging students in DEI initiatives beyond the classroom.

Idella's Journey

Max: Can we start with a brief introduction to yourself and your current role?

I’m the Vice President for Equity, Inclusion, and Community Impact at the University of Southern Maine (USM). We’re located in Portland, Maine, and we’re part of the University of Maine system. We have around 8,000 students and we are a regional comprehensive university. My role is relatively new; I started at USM in 2020, during the middle of the pandemic. I’d only visited Maine once before in my life before I made the decision to move here. 

Max: What inspired you to pursue a career in DEI work?

It wasn’t what I originally planned to do – when I went to college, I wanted to be a math teacher. I always liked math, because it's not always about finding the right answer – it’s about finding out how to get there. But I struggled with math once I arrived at college, so I made the decision to change my major to computer science. That was a new discipline back in the 80s, and I was fortunate to have a really great advisor. After I graduated, my first few jobs were in programming and software development. This was back when everyone didn't have a computer on their desk. Then, I took an information technology role in the registrar's office at a community college. That really inspired me, and I decided my next job was going to be a registrar at a four-year university. But I needed a master's degree, so I went back to study before applying for the role of Director of Minority Affairs at Furman. I was also driven by my lived experience; my roommate and I were the only black people in our dorm in our freshman year, so I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I belonged at that university.

Max: What’s the key to creating a sense of belonging and inclusion for students of all backgrounds?

When I came back to work at my undergraduate institution, I had a better understanding of the experiences that our students were having. So I was trying to be that support person who wasn’t really there when I was a student – we didn't even have a black faculty member until my junior year. So there were no people that looked like me; no one who really understood my background. I did a lot of advising for student organizations and outreach for individual students, but I realized that if I really wanted to impact these students, I needed to have a higher level position and start working at this from a more systemic, structural level. That was about the same time that the role of the senior diversity officer was beginning to take a little bit more shape and the National Association for Diversity Officers in Higher Education was trying to define professional standards. That higher level change and perspective is something I view as key to fostering a sense of belonging across the institution.

Max: Recent guests have been discussing the challenge of promoting civil discourse on campus. How can we encourage students to engage in these constructive conversations?

That's a really good question, and there are no easy answers. My role is to be open to all of our students and to encourage them to have conversations with one another. Just this week, I was with our Jewish student organization, and the week before that I was with a Muslim student group, trying to create opportunities for them to come together. We just launched a national coalition-building affiliate at USM and that's another way to try to help students build constructive dialogue and mend divides.

Back when I worked at my alma mater, one of the things I was most proud of was a workshop that brought together our black student organization with a fraternity that was founded by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The fraternity had a very negative reputation with black people, but it was actually one of the most powerful sessions that I've ever done, and it really brought the two groups together. Right now, we’re facing a similar challenge with our Muslim and Jewish students, who both have concerns about safety. So we’re trying to figure out ways to bring students together so we can begin to bridge some of those divides.

Max: Students have more demands on their attention than ever. It can often be hard to find the time to get them engaged in these initiatives outside of class. What’s your approach?

Above all, students come to college to become educated – to get their degrees. So they don't always have a lot of time for other things. But when things blow up, students figure out the time to come and have those important conversations. What I’ve learned is that if you want to get students in the room, you need to offer them something. It could be something like academic credits, or even something as simple as food. We recently ran a student-led workshop, but we noticed that not a lot of people were turning up. It wasn't until one of the faculty members said they would count it as a class period that attendance really picked up.

Max: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Never think the work is done; remember, things in this field are constantly changing. I believe that people do the best they can with what they have, and so you need to extend grace to others as well as yourself.