Alan Kim | The Roanoke Times

Benjamin Dixon, vice president for multicultural affairs at Virginia Tech since 1998, will retire on Dec. 31. On the wall behind him is a poster for the design competition for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, which recently broke ground in Roanoke.

Ben Dixon

• Education: Howard University (bachelor’s degree), Harvard University (master’s degree) and the University of Massachusetts (doctorate degree)
• Position: Vice president for multicultural affairs, Virginia Tech
• Tenure: 1998-2006
• Age: 67
• Salary: $143,883

BLACKSBURG -- When he arrived at Virginia Tech in 1998, one of Ben Dixon's goals was to make the campus a place for open discussion of race and diversity issues.

A month away from retirement, that's one goal that the vice president for multicultural affairs can say has been accomplished.

During his term, Dixon has witnessed multiple protests regarding issues of race make their way to Burruss Hall. A task force on race and the institution, in response to protests this spring, has met once in a public forum to discuss issues with a sometimes contentious student body. An online program to report incidents of racist graffiti, among other things, debuted last winter.

While discussions may become heated, they signal that the campus is alive, Dixon said. That wasn't the case in 1998, he added.

"It was my understanding that conversation or dialogue around diversity issues, good, bad or indifferent was not happening in a public way on campus," he said.

While often taking the form of a negative reaction to events -- such as the denial of tenure to black political science professor Christopher Clement last spring -- discussing the issues openly, however they come up, is a positive step, Dixon said.

"Without the conversation, I may be making some assumptions about where you're coming from," he said. "But if we don't dialogue, we can't find where that common ground is."

When asked why he chose to retire Dec. 31, with the task force in the middle of its work and a revision of the university's diversity strategic plan due out next year, Dixon, 67, said there would never be a perfect time to leave his position.

"I made a promise to myself and my family that I would not be doing this kind of work at this level of commitment, in 2007," he said.

Dixon, who worked as deputy commissioner for education in his home state of Connecticut before coming to Tech, said he'd like to remain in education and continue addressing issues of diversity. But he has no specific plans yet and is considering his options.

"It's a funny thing," he said. "When you announce your retirement all of a sudden things start to happen."

Dixon is not directly involved in the search for his successor, but he said it's important that the transition is seamless.

Jerry Niles, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, is chairman of the search committee for Dixon's replacement. The committee will receive applications through the fall semester and screen candidates early next spring. Niles hopes Dixon's successor will be in place by next May. The university is still working on a plan for what to do with Dixon's position in the interim, he said.

Niles credits Dixon -- the first person to hold the position of vice president for multicultural affairs at Tech -- with reshaping the way the university views diversity.

"I have great respect for what he's done," Niles said. "He's helped us build a foundation for the infusion of diversity into the university community."

Dixon said his successor would be well advised to know that his office alone can't solve any issues of diversity at Tech. The effort has to be university-wide.

"Everybody can bring something to the table," he said. "My role has always been setting the table."

Dixon played a major role in drafting Tech's principles of community -- a statement in March 2005 reaffirming the university's commitment to diversity. But he said the principles of community and all the task forces in the world wouldn't get Tech to where it wants to be without a tool to shape university policy.

That's where another project that Dixon was involved with comes in. The Commission on Equal Opportunity and Diversity was established in 2003 to study, formulate and recommend policies related to equal opportunity, affirmative action and diversity to University Council. The council works with the university president to form and implement university policy.

But beyond all of the studies, committees and task forces, Dixon counts a spontaneous reaction against a decision made by the school's governing board in March 2003 as one of the moments he was most proud of the university.

In what Dixon referred to as "the episode of 2003" Tech's Board of Visitors voted to end affirmative action at Tech, following the advice of Attorney General Jerry Kilgore.

Following the decision, hundreds of students and faculty marched to the president's office in protest and several university groups called for the board to reverse the move, which it did the following month.

Dixon credited the entire university community, including the board of visitors, with responding to what he saw as a poor decision.

"The community stepped up," he said. "It was the first time -- since I've been here anyway -- that the campus community realized that what appears to benefit one group on campus, that if done right can accrue benefits to all."

As he's ready to leave, Dixon said there's still a need for the university to find ways to effectively measure progress as it proceeds toward a fully diverse and inclusive community.

"Somebody told me this is a research institution," he said. "Are we leveraging our capacity to do research to address some of these issues?"

The target of a diverse campus accepting of all types of people is constantly changing, Dixon said. Ideally there's never going to be a time when the campus isn't working on initiatives or discussing problems, and therefore there would never be a truly good time to retire.

"It's not going to happen through osmosis," he said of the change that will have to take place. "It's going to happen through intentional actions on our part."