Surrounded by about 16 students Monday afternoon, provost candidate Patricia Hanna spoke candidly about diversity issues and what she thinks students should expect of their college experiences.

“The face of NIU is the face of America,” Hanna said. “You have to deal with its population. We’re educating you to live your life. You’re going to live in a world like this, with different people, not a vacuum.”

Hanna’s first full day on campus included meetings with deans, various council representatives, interim provost Lynne Waldeland and the Student

Association-sponsored student forum. She is the third of four candidates to visit the campus, vying for the job of executive vice president and provost.

Student trustee James Barr began the informal discussion, encouraging people as they walked in to pull up a chair and sit in a circle with Hanna. Barr asked the first question, pointing to the provost’s duty of overseeing academic and student affairs.

“I would try to achieve a better integration of a student’s entire life, with curricular and co-curricular objectives,” Hanna said. “You have to give students the same opportunities to really be a part of the campus.

“I thinks sometimes we take students at their words that they’re too busy and really don’t want to stay on campus on the weekends. That’s where you’re not effective as an administrator. You have to integrate your programs to work for them and find out why they’re saying that.”

Hanna currently serves as College of Humanities dean at the University of Utah, where she said staff members report directly to senior vice presidents. As the discussion moved toward minority faculty standards, Hanna pointed out that effort was necessary on all sides to keep recruitment efforts going.

“I’m deeply committed to a university education that extends beyond just courses,” Hanna said. “Courses that reflect the student body need to be diverse. And you have to require that your faculty is diverse to support that. More people within minority populations need to be identified as future educators and teachers.”

Hanna earned her bachelor’s degree and Ph.D in philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. Looking back on her undergraduate work, she said she was only taught by white men.

“I didn’t have one woman professor in my undergraduate teaching,” she said. “They probably thought I was just a pushy 6-foot-2 girl whose opinion didn’t really matter. But it’s off-putting to walk into a class where there’s not a single student who looks like you, talks like you or has the same interests as you.”

Hanna described the University of Utah as having an “awful representation” for Latino students, although the campus was experiencing a growth in Asian-American enrollment.

“The No. 1 nut that needs to be cracked is asking why you’re interested in acquiring students,” Hanna said. “With support, life is completely different. You have to approach it with the idea that each student can and will succeed. A university owes each student an equal opportunity to succeed.

“People come to school with different backgrounds. Some are the only people in their families to go to college. They need to feel welcome on campus and know where to get help if they need it. People shouldn’t fail because they didn’t get the academic, social or administrative help they needed.”

Hanna said she was surprised that there were no minority candidates chosen as provost candidate finalists, but that fault did not lie with search firm Heidrick & Struggles International. She said the typical group of administrative candidates is predominantly white, but that there’s room for improvement.

C.J. Grimes, president of the Northern Coalition for Peace and Justice, directed the discussion toward student activism, noting recent campus protests and involvement. Hanna noted that current administrations are much more tolerant of student protests than when she was in college.

“Protesting is a perfectly legitimate form of expression,” Hanna said. “Keep in mind that you’re passing through and the university will still be here after you graduate. You’re not going to devote the same amount of time to administrative matters as faculty do because they’ll still be here.”

Discussion also touched on the positive aspects of accessibility for disabled students, Greek organizations, publication of teacher evaluations, academic-interest floors and requiring faculty to attend multicultural training sessions over the summer. J. Ivan Legg, the fourth and final candidate, will arrive on campus Wednesday.