Dr. Dwayne Pruitt ‘95, the chief equity officer and vice president for community initiatives, provided the Old Gold and Black insight into his work at Wofford College. The Office for Civil Rights, Compliance, and Community Initiatives has three main components that work to guarantee that “all members of the community are granted the opportunity to thrive in a learning environment that’s free of discrimination”.
Pruitt explains that his office focuses on Title Six, Title Seven, and Title Nine which aim to prevent racial, workplace and gender discrimination. If these are violated, the primary function of this office is to address those incidents. The secondary function of the office is community outreach, which Lifelong Learning falls under. The office does a lot of work to try to engage Spartanburg’s senior community. Lastly, community initiatives which include cultural programming and support for various events.
This work is especially important to Pruitt, who graduated from Wofford. Pruitt is a historian who specializes in French, African American and local history. Pruitt is also interested in comic books and popular culture. He recommends the comic book “Uncle Sam” by Sam Darnall and Alex Ross. This comic book merges many of his interests and asks, “very important questions about how we understand our nation”.
When asked about why local history is important, Pruitt explains that it provides an understanding of the community we come from.
“We often fail to ask questions about who we are. We study history, we talk about great men and women…but we don’t stop to ask, how did the place that I grew up get to be the way that it is? … So for me, it’s just the question of trying to understand local dynamics, and to make sense of the place where I am,” Pruitt said.
This interest extends into the work Pruitt does for the Office of Civil Rights, Compliance, and Community Initiatives. Currently the office is responsible for the sense of community survey, which seeks to understand where students feel they do not fit at Wofford. The survey seeks to address the needs of students who feel discriminated against or aspects of the Wofford community that are exclusive to certain groups.
Pruitt’s office has also planned various events for Black History Month. The college welcomes Dr. Edda Fields-Black, winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in history, as its keynote speaker for Black History Month. Dr. Fields-Black’s book “Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid and Black Freedom during the Civil War,” is, as Pruitt puts it, “South Carolina history.” At the end of the month, African American artist “Black Chakra” will perform spoken word poetry.
Pruitt explains what he hopes will happen to students who attend these events and others put on by the office.
“My goal is for people to simply be in a room and hear something and say, ‘this person said this, I agree with it. I’m going to act on it or I don’t agree with it, but I’m going to be able to articulate why I don’t agree with it’,” Pruitt said.
For Pruitt, this is what a liberal arts education should be. The mission of Pruitt’s office is to “create leaders for the next generation.” Pruitt emphasizes the importance of understanding the people you aim to serve.
“You can’t lead someone whom you’re not willing to serve, and you can’t serve someone who you don’t know. So if anyone wishes to go out into the world and lead, he or she has to know who is out there, and what those people’s needs are,” Pruitt said.
This is the inspiration behind Dr. Pruitt’s hard work. Pruitt aims to hold events that are relevant to our current culture and society, in order to bring about change.
“There’s a certain degree of learned powerlessness that defines our experience, and there’s one thing I would hope we can do at this institution, is to help people start challenging and pushing back against the idea that I’m always powerless to address real social issues.”
Pruitt is allowing for Wofford students to become the future leaders they hope to be.
