By Caitlyn Meisner | Staff Writer
The Faculty Color of Alliance (FOCA), led by Dr. Christina Chan-Park, began its fifth year empowering diverse faculty.
Since the spring of 2017, FOCA has established a support group for faculty of color at Baylor. According to its website, it seeks to address issues of diversity that affect all faculty.
FOCA’s website also said faculty realize their place as role models to students and each other, so they strive to be supportive mentors and advocates. The organization also reflects on the research agenda at Baylor and the demographics of the student body and the nation as a whole.
Chan-Park said FOCA is not officially affiliated with Baylor. Since the group does not include staff, it doesn’t have to go through human resources like the Black and Latinx Faculty and Staff Associations do, she said.
FOCA is comparable to the BU Women’s Colloquium. While not official, it still has a presence on campus involving faculty, Chan-Park said.
According to Chan-Park, FOCA kickstarted when Dr. Elizabeth Palacios — who was dean for student development at the time — approached her to start a faculty diversity group. Palacios said she believed there was a natural progression toward creating FOCA in 2017.
“It was a difficult time for students of color on campus at the time,” Palacios said. “As faculty of color, we wanted to motivate and support all students to give them a better education and different perspectives in the classroom. In order to do that, we needed to encourage current faculty of color and increase the number so that all students could have at least one faculty of color in their academic journey.”
When she was at Baylor, Palacios said FOCA was a good support system and forum for faculty of color to come together.
“It was an informal way to unify our voice and our desire to make Baylor better, not just for the students but for faculty,” Palacios said.
Chan-Park said she tries to recruit more faculty into the alliance each year.
“When we started, it was just going through the directory and finding people, because there’s not a list that can be given out to anybody,” Chan-Park said. “Every year, I go through the directory and send out an email to be on our mailing list.”
Chan-Park also said FOCA is mainly focused on supporting faculty at Baylor through its mailing list by acknowledging achievements of peers. She said this has a dual benefit.
“‘Look, now somebody is chair of a department,’ because there aren’t that many faculty of color who are chairs,” Chan-Park said. “There’s two benefits of that: There’s the shoutout to the person that actually got the accolade, but it also signals to other people on the list that they have the potential to do that as well.”
Dr. Jerry Park, a member of FOCA, said the organization encourages fellowship among the faculty.
“It’s possible to have a bigger bubble of like-minded people outside of wandering in your own bubble,” Park said.
Dr. Mia Moody-Ramirez, another member of FOCA, said there are many benefits of being a member of the organization.
“Access to resources that I was unaware of, and it was through FOCA that I became aware of those resources,” Moody-Ramirez said. “Also, being able to meet colleagues that come to Baylor and meet them all in one place [and] just having access to administrators at FOCA-related events.”
Chan-Park said FOCA means a lot to her.
“I’m happy to do something to help others feel like they belong,” Chan-Park said.
