By SUSAN JONES
For nearly 20 years, Kenyon Bonner has been a highly visible representative of Pitt’s administration, particularly to students.
At well over 6 feet tall, the former college basketball player is hard to miss, but he’s made himself more visible by getting out among students — notably during the pandemic, when he regularly led walking tours of central and south Oakland on the weekends with other Pitt leaders to meet students where they lived.
Bonner said there was a sense of helplessness in fall 2020 when students returned to campus.
“We were kind of stuck, we didn’t know a lot. The only thing I could think to do is just go out and be amongst the (students),” he said. “There was a lot of talk about what students would and would not do. And I just started thinking about what can I do, and what I could do is get up out of my house, put a couple of masks on, bring some staff with me and start engaging the students to check in and let them know that we were paying attention and we cared about them; provide ways for them to mitigate risk, and not lose that connection that I knew was very important to the student experience at Pitt.”
Since coming to Pitt in 2004, Bonner’s focus has been on the student experience, first as assistant director of residence life, then as associate dean of students, director of student life, vice provost and dean of students, and finally vice provost for student affairs and a member of the senior leadership team. In January, he’ll leave Pitt to become vice president and chief student affairs officer at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
“I’ve been at Pitt for 20 years, and I’ve enjoyed every year. It’s an amazing place,” Bonner said. “I’ve had amazing opportunities and met some incredible people. And I was just thinking about, what’s the next step for me professionally? What are some new challenges that I can take on professionally, and the University of Virginia has a very unique culture. And I think, most importantly, the student self-governance piece drew my attention there.”
Getting his start
Becoming a part of higher education administration or student affairs wasn’t his dream when he left Cleveland to become a first-generation college student and athlete at Washington & Jefferson College, in Washington, Pa.
“The first goal of mine when I was graduating was to make money, because I was tired of being broke,” he said. “And a few advisors and faculty members encouraged me to wait to go work, and they said, ‘You have a lot of potential. You should go to graduate school.’ ”
At first he didn’t listen to them, but they were persistent. Eventually they got his parents involved, which made it easier for them to convince Bonner to say yes. He went to graduate school at Kent State University for rehabilitation counseling.
During his practicum, he worked with college students as his clients. He started to realize that the issues the students faced related more to external issues — transitioning to college and getting support — than counseling.
“I started to think, ‘Who’s responsible for that at a university’? And as I asked questions, people said, ‘That’s more of student affairs and higher education administration.’ And so I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I want to work in that space.’”
Bonner said his job gives him interaction with students where he “can impact the environment and the systems and the structures. … I didn’t think I would be here, but I love it. What I get out of this is the opportunity to impact students’ lives and help in some way make their journey less difficult, but challenging (in a way that) they find meaningful, and they grow from.”
Changes over the years
One of the biggest changes Bonner has seen in Student Affairs during his time at Pitt is departments becoming more coordinated and cohesive.
“Departments sort of operated in their independent ways, and they were doing good work, but there really wasn’t this sort of coordination and synergy,” he said. “Kathy Humphrey was responsible at the time, as the vice provost and dean of students, for bringing the philosophy that we need to eliminate our silos and work together.”
Student Affairs is now “a more cohesive team working together, in partnership with each other internally and then also working with our colleagues across the University to leverage the expertise that other units had.” He said the team also is more diverse now.
Bonner said Student Affairs has evolved to become more in tune with meeting students’ needs. “One example I could give is we started to see, maybe 10 years ago, the increased demand on our counseling center and student mental health support services, and I think Student Affairs has been responsive to that and evolved and really stepped up to really meeting our students and providing the type of support that students have today.”
Twenty years ago, many students with disabilities didn’t have access to universities and colleges, Bonner said. There weren’t accommodations and there was a stigma around mental health support. The result was that people didn’t talk about it, and either didn’t attempt to go to college or they dropped out.
“I think we’ve done a lot in higher education to try to reduce the stigma, to normalize that everyone from time to time in life needs help, or it’s important to talk through and work with professionals to work through your mental health issues, and it’s a part of holistic well-being.”
In addition, the world has changed, and there’s more stress for people in general. “And I think our students are just a microcosm of the entire world,” he said.
Collaborative accomplishments
Bonner won’t take sole credit for any of the accomplishments in Student Affairs during his tenure.
“I think in a university environment, it’s very difficult for one individual to take credit,” he said. “The spirit of universities is that we’re working and partnering with each other and our colleagues and students.”
One of the things he’s most proud of is improvement in student engagement, not just with Student Affairs, but also with the chancellor’s office, deans and the provost.
Students come to college and often see the university administration on one side and themselves on the other, “and the connection between the two is often not really good,” Bonner said. “I always saw Student Affairs and my role as trying to be that personification of the university that we were … approachable, open and compassionate folks who really love and enjoy working with students, and then also for students to see me as an advocate, to help communicate their needs and interests to other folks who can make decisions that affect the student experience.”
His office’s work on diversity, equity and inclusion is another accomplishment in which Bonner takes pride. Those efforts include creation of the Office of Cross Cultural and Leadership Development, “where we brought our multicultural groups together with leadership development and created a space in the Union where students felt comfortable coming to engage with others.”
Other DEI-related initiatives included: the RISE (Reaching Inside Your Soul for Excellence) mentoring program, which brought several underrepresented students to campus throughout 15 years; and the Office of Inclusion and Belonging. Student affairs also worked with the Black Action Society and the Black Senate to create a Racial Justice Action Plan after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Bonner also was involved in the creation of the Outside the Classroom Curriculum, which came out of a concept from then-Provost Jim Maher. “I think it’s really targeted the real, holistic education that you can get from the University, not just what you’re learning in the classroom, (but) what you’re learning outside the classroom, and how you’re applying that,” he said.
During the pandemic, Bonner and his team started to work more closely with their colleagues at Pitt’s regional campuses, which proved valuable. Looking back, he said he wishes they had established more formal lines of communication earlier.
“I think that’s an opportunity for the future,” he said. “We’re one University but we have five campuses, and how do we connect each other in ways that it starts to feel more like one University and our regional campus students have access to many of the opportunities that our Pittsburgh campus students have.”
Looking forward
Bonner knows that higher education, in general — and student affairs, in particular — faces challenges ahead.
“I think there’s a lot of divisiveness in our country, and I think a university environment is one of the best places … for people to come together from around the world, and wrestle with and engage with conflict and differences and learn about themselves and others and learn how to have conversations,” Bonner said. “I think that challenge is becoming more difficult, but I think this is a perfect place to do that.”
Affordability is the other big issue confronting higher education. “And providing access to financial resources for students to improve access and affordability,” he said. “That includes continuing to work with our state legislators for funding and find other ways to raise funds for scholarships and financial aid.”
As for Bonner’s future, he’ll officially leave Pitt in mid-January. However, he has plenty of reasons to return. His daughter is a first-year student-athlete on Pitt’s women’s basketball team. And he’s hoping to get invited back when the new Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, which he has championed, opens next year.
When asked what he’ll miss about Pittsburgh — other than the people — Bonner didn’t hesitate. “Oh, man, I’m gonna miss the Pittsburgh salad. That’s one of my favorite things.”
On a more serious note, he said, “I love the spirit that Pittsburgh has, and how Pittsburgh rallies around its athletic teams, and there’s a sense of pride here. That’s something that’s palpable that I appreciate,” even if he is a Cleveland native.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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