Q&A with Staff Senate President Sania Marcoccia on Diversity and Inclusion

Maura Mazurowski
Online News Editor

The university Staff Senate consists of 50 full-time members from VCU and the VCU Health System with a specific vision in mind: To create an engaging, advancing and empowering workforce. During spring break, the Staff Senate hosts an annual Professional Development Conference to both improve professional skills and hone in on a specific topic of discussion. This year, the conference’s theme was “Make a Difference” and the subject of diversity and inclusion were the issues at hand.

Last week, The Commonwealth Times met with Sania Marcoccia, the fiscal technician of the Provost’s Office, member of the Council for Inclusive Excellence and Equity and President of the VCU Staff Senate since 2014, to discuss this year’s conference and the issue of diversity and inclusion on campus.

In your own words, can you explain what the Staff Senate does?

The Staff Senate is an entity that was started by Dr. Eugene Trani. He thought there was a need to ensure that staff voices and concerns were being heard. Today, what we do is advocate for staff issues and concerns. Our vision for the staff is that we are an empowered, advancing workforce.

What are your main responsibilities and goals as Staff Senate President?

I feel like it’s twofold. Absolutely it’s to make sure that the vision of the Staff Senators are addressed, but also that we are in line with the vision for the university in our quest for distinction to become a premier, urban research university… That’s one goal. However I also want to make sure that we’re ensuring that the staff’s voices are being heard and that the staff is engaged. If you don’t have people who are engaged, you don’t have people who care. That’s the most important piece of it.  

When you say you want to ensure that the staff’s voice is heard, who exactly are you hoping that it’s heard by?

The administration and senior leadership.

Are there examples of what you mean by saying that staff’s voices “need to be heard”?

This is a perfect transition! Professional development is really important to [the Staff Senate], and that’s what started the annual Professional Development Conference three years ago. David Hanson [was] the Vice President of Finance and Administration and Katherine Poarch was the president of Staff Senate, and together they really created this event. It had a lot of support.

What specifically was discussed at the conference? What events led to diversity and inclusion being this year’s topic of discussion?

Diversity and inclusion is not VCU specific. It’s not student specific, and it’s not faculty specific. It is overarching and encompasses everyone. The gap that I saw is that people talk about diversity, and they say how it’s important, but in the real world, how does that affect people in their everyday life? A lot of people couldn’t answer that question…. So we started very basic. First off we asked, what is diversity? It’s not just black and white; it’s much deeper than that. And then we talked about how it affects everyone everyday. One of the interesting things that were discussed was “unconscious bias” and whether we really understand how diversity affects us in ways that we’re not even aware of.

I also serve on the Council for Inclusive Excellence and Equity… Around the table there are faculty, staff and students. I’ll hear students say that they hear us doing all these things to improve diversity on campus, but in reality, no one really knows what’s happening. So that’s exactly why we reached out the [The Commonwealth Times]: to ensure that students realize that not only does the administration hear what you’re saying and what’s important to students, but we also care and it’s important to us.

 Is opening a line of communication between students and the university the Staff Senate’s goal through this conference?

More so an awareness. That’s what we’re hoping for. We hear what is being said and what seems to be important, and we care. We really care.

Who are the people on campus that students could go to regarding concerns on diversity and inclusion?

There’s the Division of Diversity and Inclusion with Wanda Mitchell. We have an entire department that addresses these issues. There’s also Chuck Klink, the Interim Vice Provost for Student Affairs. He’s a great person to go to.

What would you say is the Staff Senate’s next step regarding this topic?

We put out a newsletter every month to folks that have attended the conference and we’re making diversity and inclusion a topic in the newsletter to make sure people are still thinking about it. We’re also talking about scheduling open conversations to have a space with people to talk. Let’s say in the newsletter we discuss a specific thing on diversity and inclusion. It’s great to read it, but to have a conversation about it may be more impactful and will get to the issues and help us gain new perspectives, because that’s what diversity is all about: Differing perspectives.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

There’s people [on campus] that care. That’s really important.

On Monday, April 10, the Division of Inclusive Excellence and the Council for Inclusive Excellence and Equity is putting out “The Diversity and Climate Survey” for students, faculty and staff to be a part of to help determine the university’s next step regarding diversity and inclusion on campus.

This story has been modified from its original version. In the original version, the Staff Senate was credited for putting out The Diversity and Climate Survey. However the survey was sent out by the Division of Inclusive Excellence and the Council for Inclusive Excellence and Equity.