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Provost Patricia Prelock will oversee both offices.

Under the restructuring, Levi Esquerra, the senior vice president for Native American advancement, will serve as special advisor to the provost for Native American Affairs. Marla Franco, the vice president of HSI initiatives, will serve as the special advisor to the provost for Hispanic Serving Institution Initiatives.

“They will be joining Jenna Hatcher, vice provost for Campus Community Connections and Special Advisor, as all three leaders support student success and engagement with the community,� Prelock said Tuesday in a to the university community. Hatcher, a professor at UA’s public health college and associate director of community outreach and engagement at the UA’s cancer center, is responsible for supporting internal campus community groups and external community councils, and making sure all communities are connected.

The Office of Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement were previously part of the Office of the President and led by Esquerra. This office is separate from the UA’s other bodies dedicated to the Native American community — and , both of which have always been under the provost.

The announcement of bringing the Office of Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement under the provost comes nearly a month after a group of Indigenous faculty members at the UA sent a letter to Prelock, President Suresh Garimella and others.

In the letter, they stated a vote of “no confidence� in Tessa Dysart, the assistant vice provost of Native American Initiatives. This was after the UA announced at the that Native American Student Affairs would be placed within NAI under Dysart.

The letter alleged Dysart was “sowing harm, distrust, and division within the UA Native community.� It also alleged Dysart had taken actions that were “unprofessional, misaligned with the interests of students, and, at times, clear attempts at intimidation.�

Prelock “looks forward to working closely with Special Advisor Levi Esquerra and Assistant Vice Provost Tessa Dysart, who continues to lead Native American Initiatives and is overseeing Native American Student Affairs and hiring a director for the program,� said Mitch Zak, a spokesman for the UA.

Native American Student Affairs — previously led by director Julian Juan until he was let go May 27, in what he says was a — was going to be brought under Dysart after the UA announced the centralization of six of the seven into one multicultural center called the Student Culture and Engagement Hub.

The six centers being centralized include: Asian Pacific American Student Affairs, African American Student Affairs, the Guerrero Student Center, LGBTQ Student Affairs, the Women & Gender Resource Center, and the Disability Cultural Center.

In Tuesday’s message, Prelock said the search for two new co-directors of the new multicultural hub has been completed, and the final hires will be announced soon.

“They (two new co-directors) will work closely with Jenna and me as we continue to build on this new unified framework where all communities are connected, valued, and able to thrive throughout their experience at the U of A,� Prelock said. “In our new collaborative support model, the physical spaces remain in place, our embedded counselors continue to actively support our campus community groups within the spaces, and the same coordinators continue to be present and to facilitate programming.�

“This new structure recognizes natural synergies and eliminates silos between interconnected functions that impact our entire campus community,� Garimella, said in an email.

Garimella also announced two other new appointments and leadership changes. They are:

• Johnny Cruz, the current chief communications and marketing officer at the University of California, Riverside, has been appointed in the same role here. Cruz, named one of three finalists for national higher education marketer of the year by the American Marketing Association in 2023, will be starting his role at the UA Sept. 3 for the annual compensation of $340,000.

“Cruz has more than 25 years of communications and marketing experience at public research universities and global nonprofit organizations, including leading the external communications unit at Make-A-Wish America and directing public relations for the global humanitarian organization World Vision,� said a news release announcing his appointment.