Welcoming Dr. D’Angelo Taylor to Belmont: His goals for the new Office of HUB

May 1 marks the first day on the job for Belmont’s newest faculty member, Dr. D’Angelo Taylor, who steps into his role as the Vice President of the Office of Hope, Unity and Belonging. 

Belmont announced in September 2022 that a new office, better known as the HUB, would be the newest space for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on campus.  

An announcement in February 2023 stated that Dr. Taylor would serve as Vice President of the Office of HUB, with President Greg Jones saying, “I am delighted to welcome Dr. Taylor to our campus community and am confident he will make an immeasurable impact on our efforts to creating spaces that promote belonging, creativity, innovation and flourishing.” 

As he enters his first day on the job, Dr. Taylor recalls the first time he visited Belmont’s campus in 2017 and almost immediately decided that he would work towards coming back to campus as an employee.   

“I said that I'm going to work there one day, but I just don't know how that's going to work,” he said. “I just said that if there was an opportunity for me to make a transition there in my career, that I would make it a point of looking at the position.”  

Dr. Taylor went to school at Western Illinois University and received both a bachelor's and master's degree in political science.  

He then attended the University of New England and received his Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in higher education. 

Dr. Taylor has held numerus positions in higher education, including working in academic affairs, student affairs, admissions, enrollment management and retention.  

He specifically discusses his time at the Multicultural Center at the University of Southern Indiana to be what led him to his passion for inclusivity work at predominantly white institutions. 

“That pretty much is one of my what I consider one of my foundational pieces for this particular role,” he said.  

His most recent role before coming to Belmont was at Ohio’s only public HBCU, Central State University, where he served as Vice President of Student Affairs. Each role he has served allows his to get to know campus life and the students that call it home. 

“I really pride myself on being someone that has those intentional conversations so that we can truly build community on our campus.”  

Dr. Taylor talks about how he has “God-sized dreams” for what this campus will look like under his leadership.  

It is not a matter of guessing what could be done to make campus feel safer and more inclusive for all, but rather a task that requires talking to everyone he can to see a bigger picture.  

“The intersection of not just class, upbringing, race, sexual orientation and so on and so forth,” he said. “How do those things mesh together?”  

The goal of the new office is simple; make Belmont feel inclusive to everyone who comes here.  

On the surface it seems like a simple task, but overseeing a change in culture of an entire university can be daunting. But according to Dr. Taylor, it will not be impossible with the help of his team, the students and the faculty.  

“One of the things that I shared with the search committee is that as we look at diversity, equity and inclusion, we look at hope,” he said. 

The idea of how the Office of HUB can change the culture of campus came up recently after an offensive “Jesus in the Quran and the Bible” WELL Core event caused many students and faculty to react angrily that an event of this nature was allowed.  

In a statement from the university, President Jones stated that various Belmont leaders including Dr. Taylor will be working on “a document of guidelines and expectations that any future Belmont guest speaker must agree to prior to being given a campus platform.”  

Bushra Alammouri, a member of Belmont’s Muslim Student Association, said that she hopes under Dr. Taylor’s leadership, Belmont will do a better job with inviting speakers who are educated and understand the topic they are covering.  

“I think the office should first recognize that they need to do a better job screening WELL Core incidents and bringing in speakers,” she said. “In the future, if a Muslim speaker is going to come to campus, it should be somebody that is Muslim and they should reach out to the MSA for a reliable speaker.”  

Thinking of the WELL Core incident, Dr. Taylor said that he recognizes how important these conversations will be as he steps up in his new role.  

He understands that he cannot do it alone and needs the opinions and ideas from everyone at Belmont to create the safest and most inclusive campus that it can be.  

“We're going to have focus groups. We're going to have strong feedback and sessions that will allow for students, faculty, staff and community members to have some voice as to what are the things that they see on this institution that they're connected to,” said Dr. Taylor. 

The office will serve as a place for new initiatives of inclusivity to take place, along with a comforting atmosphere where students and faculty can go to unwind and take a breath from the craziness of college life.  

“You want to have that academic excellence component, that community involvement component; you want to also have a space where students, faculty and staff can actually relax, breathe, recharge, rethink,” he said.  

Overall, he is anticipating stepping into the office and getting to work.  

Students like Alammouri hope that he does what is best in making campus accessible to everyone and hearing their voices. 

“I hope that he targets making sure that students feel included at Belmont much more than just being here and a diversity number,” she said. “I think the office will do a better job of supporting and being there if students experience discrimination or need someone to talk to.”  

Dr. Taylor’s new role of Vice President of the HUB is a step in the direction towards a more inclusive campus.  

He took his dream of coming to Belmont and turned it into a reality, and with this leadership he could very well bring big changes to this campus.  

“One thing that I share with students in all of my roles is that I want to be able to have critical and honest conversations about not just the role that I have, but the experiences that you all are having on campus,” he said. “I want to make sure students understand that they will have a listening ear; that there will be someone who understands this work, who is an advocate and who also is someone who's going to be very honest with them. I'm excited to be here.” 

Students and faculty are expecting honesty, inclusivity, communication and other big key words that will help navigate this inaugural vice president to do what he needs to do to.  

This article was written by Lilly Owens for the Belmont Vision