Marykatherine Woodson Receives the 2023-24 Isaac L. Jordan Sr. Staff Pluralism Award | May 2024
Marykatherine Woodson is the recipient of the 2023-24 Isaac L. Jordan Sr. Staff Pluralism Award. Woodson is associate director of Residence Life but her impact on students and the RIT campus extends well beyond her office in Kate Gleason Hall.
The award is named after Jordan who was RIT’s first chairman of the President’s Commission on Pluralism. The Pluralism Award Selection Committee is comprised of university representation and shared governance representatives. It is given annually to those who also embrace his ideals of diversity and inclusion and work to build an inclusive community at RIT.
Upon receiving the award, Woodson says, “Every marginalized student’s journey to success is different but every journey is a fight. Our students come from multigenerational communities of support that disappear when they get to college. I have the privilege of being the place for them to rest before they put their armor back on to face a world that can be so unkind. I’m deeply honored to represent them at every table I sit at. This award cements that the work I am doing is making the journey one step easier. The work is never done, and I am just getting started. “
Woodson credits her mother for laying the foundation that she stands on today in her focus on social justice. Woodson was just 10 years old when her mother would take her to meetings of the Anti-Racism Council for the City of Chicago Archdiocese. As a child, she may not have been fully aware of all that was going on—but she knew important, transformative work was taking place.
As an adult, Woodson continues to follow in her mother’s footsteps and much of her focus as associate director of residence life is the “student experience” and creating a space where they feel they belong.
She has said, “I have worked in Residence Life since I was in college. And I have heard it all. You are the babysitters, the snitches, the camp counselors. But our reality is we see students at their most vulnerable. They come back to the dorms after a bad exam. They come back to the apartments after their counseling session. They come back home to us, after losing the championship. Our work never stops. And the people that fuel the Center for Residence Life do not hesitate to get out of bed at 2 a.m. for a student in need. We have done it before, and we always take the call.”
Woodson is active in promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives university wide. One person who wrote nomination letter stated:
“She has presented to all of COLA on Inclusive LGBTQ Terminology and worked with individual faculty cohorts on DEI topics such as microaggressions and cultural conflict mediation as a RIT Inclusive Excellence Howard Hughes Medical Institute Cohort Trainer from 2017-2019.”
Another wrote: “She leads our large department in our yearly educational efforts, is frequently presenting to campus partners on key issues/experiences including Together RIT and the Cultural Humility Program and was a key member of the team charged with changing the name of NRH to Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry Hall this past August.
Woodson calls the renaming of Nathaniel Rochester Hall one of her proudest moments.
“When it came out that Nathaniel Rochester enslaved people, I asked Dr. Keith Jenkins when will RIT follow the lead of Rochester City Schools in renaming buildings in honor of prolific Black figures critical to Rochester’s education system.” Woodson says she was persistent with her reminders.” I asked Dr. Keith every chance I had to ask when RIT would do the right thing. For three years I stayed the course, engaging Dr. Keith when we could make our campus, a place that our Black students call home, a place where they know they are welcome. When President Munson and Dr. Keith called the meeting to propose renaming the residence hall after Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry, my heart swelled to know that I didn’t give up. Not only do our students get to see RIT do the right thing, but Black women get to see the name of someone who looked like them on a building, a first on RIT’s campus.”
In a letter of nomination from students, they say Woodson “provides a safe space to be a human being.” They added, “She hones in on the importance of taking care of student leaders and shows this through her actions too. Her contributions to a safer campus for students of color through her various talks on microaggressions through the lens of cultural conflict, recruitment proposals for hiring more diverse staff, her allyship and active partnership with RIT’s Q Center, among others have left lasting impressions in the lives of many who have encountered her.
Woodson’s accomplishments are many and she credits her colleagues for inspiring her to be innovative and creative when thinking about student advocacy. She says her commitment to diversity and pluralism is paramount to her work in higher education. “The way we invest in the success of our students is the way we influence the future.”