Reorganization stirs controversy as pressures on higher education close in on Gonzaga University

Gonzaga University, like many other higher education institutions, will look a little different next school year.

Gonzaga President Katia Passerini enacted broad changes this week to the university's administrative structure as Gonzaga grapples with what Passerini described as "budget constraints."

The reorganization comes on the heels of three dozen employees taking voluntary buyouts, and the initiation of a hiring freeze for vacant, noncritical positions. One of the most controversial changes is the decision to shuffle the university's Office of Inclusive Excellence under a broader department and dismiss the administrator who has run the office since 2020.

Leadership shifted the duties of the school's inclusion office into another branch of the university as part of these changes, effectively removing the administrator position tasked with much of the diversity, equity and inclusivity work on campus.

"These are times like no others," Passerini said. "And there's going to be a lot to navigate still."

Colleges and universities across the country will have fewer students to potentially admit in the coming years as an expected demographic cliff of college-aged people sets in, driven by declining birth rates. Schools are also receiving less federal and state funding, while seeing fewer high-paying international students.

Robin Kelley, the former chief diversity officer who oversaw the office, joined the university in 2020 as an associate diversity officer. She founded a diversity and inclusion consulting firm and held similar positions in higher education at North Carolina State University, Iowa State University and the State University of New York, Buffalo, before joining Gonzaga.

During her tenure, Gonzaga was recognized nationally for displaying "an outstanding commitment to academic excellence and belonging," according to an October news release. Last year, the university received the Higher Education Excellence and Distinction award for the second consecutive year, a distinction granted by the oldest and largest diversity in education publication, Insight into Diversity.

The award came before the reported increase in racist incidents on campus that the Black Student Union called out publicly earlier this year, as previously reported by The Spokesman-Review.

"We just want answers, we want transparency," said Black Student Union communications lead Grant Barnes. "We want President Passerini herself to be able to explain how these decisions, and eliminating the chief diversity officer, how that advances the goals we have spent months discussing with university leadership."

The Office of Inclusive Excellence was responsible for overseeing the university's implementation of diversity, equity and inclusivity efforts, although the office's current website uses the politically charged terms sparingly. Staff implemented the strategic plan for fostering a welcoming university environment, oversaw Title IX compliance and investigated reports of hate, bias and prejudice through the Bias Incident Assessment and Support team.

Barnes said the decision to part ways with Kelley and to move the office feels like university leadership is succumbing to political pressures around DEI work and "suggests the priority is no longer preventing these incidents from happening," Barnes said.

Barnes said Kelley was one of few administrators students trusted, and that she filled a crucial role by bringing the perspective of diverse students to the administrative level.

"Just being a Black woman in the room where decisions are being made, she would bring a perspective, bring knowledge that the rest of the Gonzaga administration does not have," Barnes said. "They chose to not just sideline her, but remove that voice and not replace it with another voice with experiences that would reflect what many students experience at a predominantly white institution."

Kelley did not respond to an inquiry from The Spokesman-Review, citing an inability to reach her lawyer for guidance in submitting written responses.

Passerini said the university remains committed to the work and that the reorganization will ensure it's carried out at every level of the university. She said the Office of Mission Integration will now be responsible for ensuring the work is part of every aspect of the university.

The shifts in the Office of Inclusive Excellence are in line with Passerini's approach to restructuring , clumping responsibilities together, she said. The onus of investigating all reports will be shifted under auditing and compliance, where the university's human resources and legal team will now be housed.

"It's very difficult to understand what the process is and where to go and where a response is at some point in the process," Passerini said.

Centralizing the reporting functions should make reporting incidences of bias, racism or prejudice easier for students, Passerini said. The BIAS team will continue to be the main recipient of any complaints and will handle it with the appropriate aspects of the university, like Student Life if it involves a student.

Passerini said she understands students may be upset by the timing of the changes, which came after the school year ended. June 1 marks the beginning of the fiscal year.

Passerini said she worked earnestly throughout the semester with groups like the Black Student Union to implement their feedback. She laid out the changes and the reasoning in emails to the entire university in the interest of transparency, she said.

"I feel the hurt of the students; what happened in February is something that I wish I could say it didn't happen, or it doesn't happen at this institution," Passerini said. "And I've realized that, unfortunately, there is still a lot of work that we have to do, and it might take some time."

As the next school year approaches, Passerini and her cabinet will form an Academic and Administrative Affairs Council that will include more than a dozen employees responsible for equity and inclusion work at the division level, according to an email she sent the university in late May.

Incoming Faculty President Ryan Herzog said he and many faculty members are hoping to see administrative reshuffling have the intended effects. He said the administration seemed to bloat as the university grew in recent decades.

He's worked with Kelley before, and said he holds a lot of respect for her. As faculty president, his concern is that the loss of the chief diversity officer and the office she ran means faculty and staff will now be asked to pick up the load.

"I think it puts more work on faculty to engage with administration to ensure the students are feeling safe and in an environment that enables them to learn and excel," Herzog said. "I do see there being more of a burden placed on faculty to ensure our students, but also our colleagues, are supported."

Higher education as a whole has not been historically quick to evolve, Herzog said, and institutions across the country are having to adapt to the population cliff and financial, societal and political pressures.

The voluntary buyouts hit hard. Decades of experience were lost when those staff members opted to leave or retire, he said.

Still, the economics professor noted larger universities are seeing similar staffing changes. Inside Higher Ed reported in 2025 that around 600 staff and faculty members at Duke University took buyouts, which were to be followed by layoffs. The University of Southern California has laid off nearly 1,000 employees since last July, as reported by Forbes.

"I mean, even well-positioned, well-endowed schools are trying to manage," Herzog said.

Passerini's reorganization includes grouping together finance, facilities, plant operations and information technology services to form a more integrated department.

She also lumped the university's communication and marketing teams under one umbrella, a grouping she said will assist with athletics, another dynamic aspect of the collegiate landscape. Passerini said the start of the new Pac-12 Conference this coming year presents an opportunity for Gonzaga to increase recruitment in new areas of the country.

"Hopefully we'll continue to expand our enrollment strategy all the way to the East Coast, as far as possible, the entire nation," Passerini said. "And ideally when the time comes again for international students, we will hopefully continue to have a very strong outreach internationally."

There's not a person in higher education who's not worried, at least a little, about the state of things, Herzog said. The pressures are aplenty, but it gives universities like Gonzaga a chance to "pause, rethink and look at 'Who are we as a university?' "

"'What do we want to keep doing and doing well,' and making sure we're spending the resources we have on those," Herzog said. 'And I think the faculty are committed to the educational experience of students, and I don't see the reshuffling radically having an impact on that."

"But it's a wait-and-see how it plays out over the next year."

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