Back in the 1970s, when Pierce was a student, he remembers feeling welcomed on campus and feeling like he belonged. There were many UM professors, who like him and his closest friends, were African-American.
Back then, Ulysses Doss, the dynamic founder of UM's African-American Studies program, helped create an environment where black students confidently engaged in the larger campus community.
“We had a counselor and a place - a house - to call home, and because of those things, there was a feeling of greater community among black students,” Pierce said.
Pierce relished his UM experience, and as he moved on in his life after graduation he remained a proud alumnus who kept an eye on his alma mater.
Despite his pride in UM, however, over the years he became frustrated to learn of the waning presence of black students and the erosion of the Black Student Union.
It's bothered him to the point that he has agreed to step forward and help UM revive the sense of confidence and belonging he experienced on campus and provide that for UM's current and future black students.
To that end, Pierce accepted a part-time position at UM, officially titled special assistant to the vice president for student affairs, which entails mentoring UM's black students and bringing back to campus the nonacademic aspects that nurture a positive college experience.
Pierce's new duties are in addition to his already busy career as director of Missoula Youth Court's community supervision program, which he has held for the past 20 years.
He views his UM responsibilities not as more work, but rather, a calling.
“Everybody has to find something they feel strongly about and find a way to make it positive and pass it on,” Pierce said. “There were people who took the time to assist me when I was here and that meant the world to me.
“I don't see this anything other than what I need to do,” he said. “Somebody did it for me.”
UM has long talked about creating the mentoring position, but the concept didn't really get traction until campus leaders had a profound awakening about three years ago during an event called Day of Dialogue, said Teresa Branch, UM Vice President for Student Affairs.
During those conversations about diversity, several students talked frankly about the challenges of being black in Montana and being black at UM.
“They talked about everything from not knowing where to go to get their hair done or where to buy foods they were familiar with, to perceptions people had of them, perceptions they had of others, and feeling isolated,” Branch said. “To hear students talk about basic needs not being met was a concern, and clearly we needed to persist in this area to help these students have a successful experience here.”
Of those discussions, Pierce said: “It validated a lot of what we already knew - a lot of these kids existed in Montana as opposed to living in Missoula.”
How to improve things was addressed quietly, in many meetings that unfolded in the past few years with Pierce and others on campus, Branch said.
“This wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to bad press some athletes were involved with last year,” she said, referring to the high-profile break-in last fall in Missoula that involved four black UM students. “This dialogue had been going on for a while.”
Pierce expects his role and job duties will continue to evolve as the academic year moves forward.
He's been given an office in the Lommasson Center, a campus phone and an e-mail address. Already he's met with many students, and he's posted official office hours.
Working with students is one of the highlights of his job, Pierce said, but he also looks forward to championing the past and pulling some of it forward.
“To some degree, what we hope to do is retro-nouveau,” he explained, “going back to that time in the1970s - when the African-American Studies program was thriving and we had more African-American students on campus - and bring that back.”
Why student numbers have fallen off far below 100, and why the African-American Studies program has failed to grow is a puzzle to a large degree, Branch said. But she has one theory: When Doss retired in 1993, UM lost one of its greatest leaders.
“A lot of time when a university develops a program you think it will go on indefinitely, but a lot of times programs are developed around individuals. As certain people leave, it dies if the program is not institutionalized. When you institutionalize something, you put resources into it and its history becomes stable, and when one person leaves it doesn't die.”
Few people in Montana know that UM is home to one of the oldest African-American Studies programs in the nation, Branch said.
It was created by Doss in 1968, the year Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. George Price is the program's current director, and he is busy planning the program's 40th anniversary celebration, which will be held on Sept. 9.
The anniversary celebration, which includes Doss' return to campus, and Pierce's hiring are hopeful signs of better things to come for UM's African-American students, Branch said.
Pierce said he will be devoting some of his energy to efforts to re-institutionalize the Black Student Union, and to work with different campus groups to build rapport with black students.
Building a student support network is key for student success, Pierce said. When there are so few people to relate to that share similar cultural backgrounds and experiences, college can be a lonely place.
His goal is to help students reach out for opportunities beyond the classroom and learn about kayaking, mountain biking, rafting and skiing - all the things that make living in Missoula fun but are things many black students have never tried.
“This place provides an incredible atmosphere for growth - intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and academically,” Pierce said. “It was that place for me when I was a student here, and I look forward to helping it be that place for others.”
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