Penn State hosting Chief Diversity Officer for fall semester commencement speech
Norman Bristol Colón was appointed Pennsylvania’s Chief Diversity Officer last year.
He is charged with advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the public and private sectors.
Pennsylvania’s Chief Diversity Officer will give the commencement speech for Pennsylvania State University’s fall semester graduation in late December.
Penn State Berks’s fall semester commencement is scheduled for Saturday, December 21. Norman Bristol Colón, an alumnus of Penn State University and was recently announced as the keynote speaker for the event, is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Chief Diversity Officer. Governor Shapiro appointed him to the position last year. Colón also gave an address at Alvernia University earlier this semester for Hispanic Heritage Month.
His job description states he is charged with advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the public and private sectors.
“In this position, he is charged with leading diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across commonwealth agencies by partnering with senior leaders and employees across the commonwealth to continue to build a capable, accessible and diverse administration that represents all Pennsylvanians,” Colón’s bio on Penn State’s website says.
Before taking over the position, Colón was the Chief Diversity Officer—the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—at the Pennslyvania Department of Community & Economic Development. He was also the founder and chairman of the Pennslyvania Latino Convention.
“This convention is creating the statewide agenda for the more than one million Latinos in the state in areas such as business and entrepreneurship, education, health, housing, social justice, politics, the environment, civil rights, immigration, workforce training and leadership/professional development,” the bio continues.
Colleges and universities regularly celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion values at graduation and commencement, with some even organizing identity-based graduation events. For example, the University of Virginia hosted several such events this past spring. These were a “Lavender Graduation” for LGBTQ-identifying students and a “Multicultural Graduation.”
Meanwhile, Hofstra University, a private school in Hempstead, New York, organized four identity-based graduation events: a “Umoja Scholars LLC Graduation Ceremony,” a “Lavender Graduates Ceremony,” a “First-Generation Graduates Ceremony,” and a “Graduates of Color Ceremony.”
Campus Reform contacted Pennslyvania State University and Norman Bristol Colón for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
