Carretta Cooke has stepped down from her role at Northwestern as executive director of Multicultural Student Affairs, effective Sept. 1.
Cooke will stay with the university as Vice President of Student Affairs William Banis’ assistant, a position left vacant by Burgwell Howard, who is now interim dean of students.
Howard replaces Mary Desler, who retired from her position in July. Banis said the administration will likely not name a permanent dean of students during the coming 2009-2010 school year.
Banis also said the administration likely will not appoint Cooke’s successor any time soon, though he said an interim appointment is a possibility.
“These searches take awhile,” Banis said. “You don’t just pluck someone out of the labor pile and put them into the position.”
Banis said he has been in contact with leaders of student groups in MSA, and has requested to meet with them to discuss the future of MSA. He said the administration “wouldn’t want to go ahead without having student involvement in the process.”
Banis declined to comment as to why Cooke left her position with MSA.
On May 18, a group of campus multicultural group members delivered a packet to five Northwestern administrators and four professors that discussed their “lack of confidence” in Cooke, according to DAILY archives.
More to come in The Daily’s first issue on Sept. 21.
