Two pieces of framed artwork hang behind College of Liberal Arts Dean Philip Williams’ desk in Building 47. One, a gift from his daughter, is a photograph by Mexican photographer Elena Poniatowska. The other commemorates the “Martyrs de la Universidad Centroamericana.”
Williams was a Fulbright Scholar at the Central American University in El Salvador from 1991 to 1992. Just two years earlier, amidst the Salvadoran Civil War, the military assassinated six Jesuit Priests and two others at the university. They had denounced human rights violations committed by the government, according to a 1989 New York Times article.
“I had the opportunity to serve on that campus for a year,” Williams said. “When we were there was the last six months of the civil war and the first six months of peace. This shaped my own social justice values.”
Williams told Mustang News that he has no desire to become a martyr himself, but this story inspires him throughout his day-to-day life and prompts him to ask himself, “What have I done today?”
Aug. 23 will be Williams’ last day as CLA Dean. On Sept. 16, he will start as the CLA Dean at Oregon State University.
Dean Williams’ Advocacy
Inspired by the martyrs and his previous academic roles, the motto “sin fronteras,” or “without barriers,” has guided Williams’ years serving as dean.
Williams’ demonstrated commitment to DEI initiatives in the college shows his effort to promote an education “without barriers.”
He oversaw the development and expansion of stipend research opportunities and funding for “Learn by Doing” service, leadership and internship programs that support underserved students and scholarships.
“How do we remove barriers and create access for students, particularly first gen and underrepresented students, to all the opportunities that are here at Cal Poly?”
College of Liberal Arts Dean Philip Williams
In the last five years, 65 new CLA tenured-track professors have been hired who are more diverse in terms of identity, background, and specialties than ever before in the college, according to Williams.
“I think the hiring that we’ve done, helped certainly by DEI focus cluster hires, has been a real game changer,” Williams said. “They’ve enriched our curriculum and enriched the learning experience for our students in ways that one couldn’t have imagined before.”
Williams witnessed a culture shift firsthand around transfer students at Cal Poly in the past five years. Unlike most Cal State campuses, the overwhelming majority of students admitted to Cal Poly are first-time freshmen.
“I’ve seen a growing embrace of transfer students and an urge to become a more transfer-ready and transfer-friendly institution,” Williams said. “When I first came here, that wasn’t the case, but the institution has made a lot of strides.”
These strides have taken the form of reducing certain majors’ core course requirements to be more accessible to more community colleges and making the curriculum more transfer-friendly after the semester conversion.
Dr. Kate Murphy, CLA Associate Dean for Student Success, worked with Williams to expand the number of Associate’s Degree for Transfer (ADT) pathways offered in CLA.
“An Associate’s Degree for Transfer smooths the path of a transfer student to Cal Poly,” Murphy said. “Even though there are 39 available, Cal Poly only has a handful of them. And Williams really encouraged me to take on this project. We ended up exceeding our own expectations.”
By the time Cal Poly completes the semester conversion, CLA will offer ADT pathways for 15, out of 18 total, majors, according to Murphy. “That will be a huge transformation that will make things a lot smoother for students who are coming in as transfer students,” Murphy said.
“Transfer students tend to be some of the most resilient, entrepreneurial, hard-working and deserving students we have,” Williams said. “As a CSU, we want to serve the residents of California. Just in terms of the numbers, it’s hard for us to serve as many community college transfer students, but we also have created obstacles.”
According to Williams, a large portion of Cal Poly community college transfer students are from Hancock College and Santa Maria. “How do we serve those students when relocation is not an option and commuting is a hardship? How do we remove those barriers? How do we create more access?” Williams said.
To better serve transfer students from the San Luis Obispo area is a focus point of the Provost’s Office, according to Williams. Williams brought this challenge to CLA department heads, and the Sociology Department proposed a 2+2 plan set to start this fall.
Williams collaborated with new Cal Poly Arts director Molly Clark to create more diverse performances for the Cal Poly community.
“Cal Poly Arts is a big part of doing more community engagement,” Williams said. “We’ve been able to, with a new director that came in three years ago, really bring in much more diverse artists and programming to engage communities that had never entered the Performing Arts Center.”
Clark described how performers like Carla Morrison, a Mexican indie pop singer, sold out the theater to a young audience that had never been to a Cal Poly Arts performance before. Williams has been a vocal supporter and partner throughout this process, according to Clark.
“I’m really sad to see Dean Williams leaving,” Clark said. “He’s been a strong advocate for diversifying the Cal Poly Arts in terms of how we extend our reach to all of those in our community.”
Dean William’s Departure
Williams’ professional transition is, in part, to be closer to his daughter who lives in Portland.
“My wife and I didn’t see [my daughter] for 12 months during the pandemic,” Williams said. “That had a profound impact on us. We both said that if there was ever a great professional opportunity closer to our daughter, that’s something I’d be open to. She also had her first baby, so being more part of their lives on a more regular basis is important.”
While personal, Williams explained it had to be the perfect professional opportunity as well. He is looking forward to working at a research-intensive university like Oregon State with a large undergraduate student population.
“I’m going to miss Cal Poly, particularly CLA and my colleagues here,” Williams said. “But, I’m confident that we’ve got a great leadership team in place. A new leader will come in, and CLA is going to continue to be successful and grow in prominence going forward.”
As Cal Poly plans to become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), Murphy believes William’s “Sin Fronteras” leadership has placed the college on track to truly serve all students.
“I think his ‘Sin Fronteras’ vision supports this idea of being an HSI,” Murphy said. “HSI stands for Hispanic Serving Institution, and that “serving” is really important. We don’t want to be an HSI just to hit the numbers. We want to do it in a way that serves all students, because it benefits students, regardless of their background.”
Williams’ five years at Cal Poly started just six months before the pandemic would keep him, and the rest of the Cal Poly community, from campus.
“The pandemic obviously marks my five years here, and I think it marks all of us,” Williams said. “Universities are very slow to change, but the pandemic proved that as an institution we were able to turn on a dime. It showed that we can be innovative. We can be creative and resilient, even under difficult circumstances.”
Clark started as Cal Poly Arts director as the program reopened after the pandemic. This transition was made more challenging because they also were pushing to diversify the productions offered, but Williams was incredibly supportive of the program through this period, according to Clark.
“You could end up with leadership that would say, ‘This is really challenging. You should just go back to what you were doing before.’ That’s not what Phillip said. He said, ‘You need to keep going. You’re having an impact.’”
Cal Poly Arts Director Molly Clark
Due to being unable to continue university operations as usual, Williams said that faculty had to become familiar with technology that most were not utilizing before, such as Canvas or Zoom.
The technological advancements during the pandemic also allowed for increased synchronous and asynchronous course offerings during the summer and academic year, according to Williams.
“When I started, zero online courses were offered during the academic year, Williams said. “I would say about 10 to 12% of our course sections in the academic year are now online or synchronous. This provides some additional flexibility for students. Those are often the courses that fill up the fastest.”
Additionally, 95% of summer course offerings are now asynchronous, and these courses, specifically GEs, are helping students stay on track with graduation progression, according to Williams.
“All the accomplishments that have happened in the last five years have been the result of a team effort,” Williams said. “In some ways, I came in and set a vision, the priorities and the values. But, we have an incredible leadership team in the college, like our other associate deans and our department chairs. They’re doing the work and making things happen.”
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Dean Philip Williams’ last day as Aug. 2. His last day is Aug. 23.
