Founded in 1906, Pace University has campuses in New York City and Westchester County. As a complement to their
New York City location, classes began at Pace University Westchester, a campus in Pleasantville, New York, in 1963
and the campus was expanded to include its Briarcliff location when Pace acquired Briarcliff College in 1977. The twolocation Westchester campus is located on 200 acres of rolling countryside, where the university off ers a broad range of undergraduate degree programs and graduate programs innursing.
Westchester campus, comprised of 28 full-time and eight part-time staff members across many departments in the division, including Athletics, Student Disability Services, the Counseling Center and Personal Development,
Student Development and Campus Activities, and Diversity Programming, to name a few.
Diversity is a core component of daily life for staff and students at Pace University Westchester.
Executive leadership and division staff members all articulate similar understandings of diversity, namely that their job is to create spaces and opportunities for students and staff to regularly think about, discuss and experience diversity. Mariesa Cruz-Tillery, staff psychologist and coordinator of consultation and outreach, suggests this is part of what stimulated her belonging: “As an immigrant woman of color, the ability and opportunity to work and professionally develop in a safe space has always been important to me.”
Beyond discussions about diversity, this safe space also has been created through the cultivation of a diverse and representative student aff airs staff ; Andrea Winter, associate director of operations and alcohol and other drugs specialist, shared that this “provides a message to all students that diversity is valued, welcomed and essential.”
There is consensus at Pace University Westchester that to be a student affairs practitioner means being able to model respect, inclusion and understanding. To that end, Dr. Bardill Moscaritolo concludes, “Our success in student aff airs should be measured by how we achieve diversity and fight injustices.” And this is, in part, why student affairs at Pace University Westchester is one of this year’s “30+ Promising Places to Work in Student Affairs.”
