New director of Institutional Opportunity & Access serving multiple KU campuses
LAWRENCE — The new Office of Institutional Opportunity & Access (IOA) at the University of Kansas has its first director. Jane McQueeny, an attorney who most recently worked for the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights in Kansas City, has been on campus since late May. As director, she is providing leadership across a variety of equal opportunity areas in addition to new roles designed to enhance KU's commitment to a diverse and inclusive community.
"Jane is the ideal individual to lead the new IOA office," said Fred Rodriguez, vice provost for Diversity and Equity. "In just a short time at KU, her energy and enthusiasm for fostering an open, diverse and inclusive learning and working environment has been contagious. She is excited to reach out across the KU community to increase the engagement of all our campuses in strengthening diversity and inclusion in everything that we do."
The new office will serve all KU campuses, a change in policy from past practices. In addition, IOA's role in recruiting and hiring has shifted from a comprehensive upfront review to a selective post-event audit approach. IOA will be available to provide guidance to units and departments at all times upon request. This will allow IOA to take a more active role in developing campuswide programs to enhance and ensure institutional opportunity and access.
"KU has a tremendous opportunity, as a premier international research university, to be a leader in creating an inclusive environment for our entire community, not just our students, faculty and staff but also visitors to all of our campuses," said McQueeny. "In my short time on campus, I've been greatly impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm we have for these issues."
McQueeny is a 1984 graduate of the College of Law at Loyola University in New Orleans. She served for many years in the county counselor's office in Jackson County, Mo., defending the county in employment matters. Prior to joining the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights as supervisory attorney she spent a year as chief trial attorney for the Jackson County prosecutor's office.
The IOA office is part of the Office of Diversity and Equity, a change made in December 2011 to transfer responsibility for equal employment opportunity, the Americans with Disabilities Act, affirmative action and other equal opportunity functions from KU's Department of Human Resources. The change allows equal opportunity and diversity functions to operate more efficiently by merging each area within one unified department.