Vanderbilt University Creates the Office of Inclusion Initiatives and Cultural Competence
The new office will be under the direction of Tina Smith, who has been promoted from assistant dean of students to associate dean. She will have oversight over many organizations including the Women's Center and the Black Cultural Center.
New Effort Aims to Increase Diversity Among Academic Librarians
American University in Washington, D.C., the University of Iowa, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia University are hiring resident librarians from diverse backgrounds in the early stages of their careers for a three-year period.
Increasing the Number of African American Cancer Researchers
The Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research aims to encourage Black and other minority graduate students to pursue doctoral degrees and careers in research relating to cancer.
Arizona State’s Kimberly Scott to Lead the National Academic STEM Collaborative
Dr. Scott is an associate professor in the department of women and gender studies at Arizona State University. She is also the founding executive director of the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology at Arizona State.
Middlebury College Names New Intercultural Center After Two Early Black Alumni
The new Anderson Freeman Resource Center was named after Mary Annette Anderson, the valedictorian of the Class of 1889 and Martin Henry Freeman of the Class of 1849 who later became president of Liberia College.
Ohio University Aims to Boost Retention of Black and Minority Faculty Members
The Multicultural Junior Faculty Mentoring Program that will assign new junior faculty members from underrepresented groups a senior faculty member who will serve as a mentor.
A Check-Up on the Racial Gap in Medical School Applications and Enrollments
In 2015, the number of Black applicants to U.S. medical schools was up a whopping 16.8 percent from 2014. Blacks were 7.6 percent of all medical school matriculants in 2015. This was up from 6.9 percent in 2014.
How Anti-Affirmative Action Admissions Laws Impact Campus Diversity Efforts
The authors found a reluctance by administrators who are charged with diversity missions at universities prohibited from using race in admissions decisions to deal specifically with race in their efforts to create a more welcoming campus.
New Black Faculty Association at the University of Cincinnati
The organization is an official group at the university with funding and other support services provided by the university administration. The university will fund the group's faculty development seminars, research symposia, as well as mentoring and networking initiatives.
Medical University of South Carolina Becoming More Diverse
According to U.S. News & World Report, the Medical University of South Carolina enrolls the fifth highest number of African American students among medical schools that are not considered historically Black institutions.
New Mentoring Program for First-Year Students at Youngstown State University
Seventeen first-year students from underrepresented groups will be the first cohort of Navarro Executive Fellows. They will be paired with a mentor from the university's leadership team.
Biology Scholars Program at Cornell University Propels Black Students to Graduate School
Since 2010 there have been 120 Biology Scholars who have graduated from the university. More than 90 percent of those who applied to medical school were accepted and enrolled. Another 19 students are enrolled in Ph.D. programs and three are enrolled in M.D./Ph.D. programs.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Makes Major Commitment to STEM Diversity
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has selected 24 educational institutions to receive $1 million grants to promote STEM education. The initiative focuses on those undergraduates who come to college from diverse backgrounds and pathways.
University of Kansas Aims to Increase Diversity in Its Engineering Programs
The KUEST (KU Engineering, Science and Technology) program aims to expand and fill the pipeline of underrepresented engineers, including women and minorities, with an array of programs aimed at students as young as middle school.
How Greater Diversity in the Physician Workforce Would Reduce Racial Health Disparities
After conducting a randomized clinical trial among 1,300 Black men in Oakland, the researchers found that the men sought more preventive services after they were randomly seen by Black doctors for a free health-care screening compared to non-Black doctors.
Clemson University Launches New Center for Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Educators
Faculty from Clemson will work with education and community leaders in local districts to get minority students interested in teaching at an earlier age and ease their transition from K-12 to two- and then four-year institutions of teacher education.
“White Racial Literacy Project” Aims to Involve More White People in Racial Equity Conversations
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis has launched a new initiative, called the White Racial Literacy Project. The effort aims to get White students more involved in conversations about racial equity.
African Americans Accepted Into the Class of 2023 at High-Ranking Colleges and Universities
Recently, most of the nation’s highest-ranked colleges and universities informed applicants if they had been accepted for admission into the Class of 2023. Some revealed the racial/ethnic breakdown of their admitted students.
Rutgers University Allocates $20 Million Towards Hiring Diverse Faculty
The program, now totaling more than $40 million, will provide half the salary support for the first three years of each newly hired faculty member's service at Rutgers, along with additional funds to support mentoring and retention.
Colleges and Universities With the Most and Least Race and Class Interaction
Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, was ranked first on the list of colleges than had little race or class interaction. African Americans make up 4 percent of the undergraduate student body at Quinnipiac. Rice University in Houston was rated as having the most race/class interaction.
The First Black Woman to Earn a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics at Florida State...
A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Kalisa Villafana decided at the age of 12 that she would be a physicist.
The University of Florida Has the Most Black Women Faculty in Engineering
According to the American Society for Engineering Education, a nonprofit dedicated to engineering education, the seven Black women faculty members in engineering are the most among the 338 four-year degree-granting engineering schools in the United States.
Washington State Ballot Referendum Could Reinstate Affirmative Action in College Admissions
In 1998, voters in Washington State voted by a large margin to prohibit public colleges and universities from considering race in admissions decisions. This year, voters will have the opportunity to reinstate affirmative action.
Washington State Voters Reject Referendum That Would Have Reinstated Affirmative Action
On Tuesday, November 5, voters in the state of Washington rejected - by a slim margin - a measure that would have reinstated race-sensitive admissions at state-operated colleges and universities. Voters in rural areas of the state rejected the effort to reinstate race-sensitive admissions by a large margin.
Syracuse University Taking Further Efforts to Improve Campus Climate for Black Students
After a series of racial incidents occurred on campus during the fall semester, Syracuse University announced that it would take steps to improve the campus climate for African American students who make up 6 percent of the student body and students from other underrepresented groups.
Idaho Bans the Use of Affirmative Action in Admission Decisions at State Universities
Idaho governor Brad Little has signed into law a bill that prohibits the consideration of race in hiring and admissions decisions at state-operated colleges and universities in the state. Idaho becomes the ninth state to ban race-sensitive admissions at state colleges and universities.
Black Faculty, Staff, and Administration Group at Michigan State Opposes Pick for Provost
Teresa Woodruff, who holds an endowed chair and is dean of the Graduate School at Northwestern University, was selected from a field of three finalists to become the next provost at Michigan State University. The other two finalists were African Americans.
The University of Virginia’s Bold Plan to Improve Racial Equity
A task force proposed “a system in which racial identity neither predicts nor determines one’s access, success, nor influence within the University of Virginia – where people of any racial background have an equal probability of thriving.”
University of California, Irvine Launches the Black Thriving Initiative
The new Black Thriving Initiative at the University of California, Irvine aims to mobilize the whole university to promote Black student success, degree completion, and advancement in academic programs, with a goal of making the university a first choice for Black students.
Duke University Receives Major Gift to Boost Faculty Diversity and Combat Racism
The $16 million grant from the Duke Endowment allocates $10.5 million toward recruiting and retaining diverse faculty and $5.5 million to support the university community’s understanding of historical and current racism, to combat racism, and to create a more inclusive environment.
Four African Americans Who Have Been Hired to Diversity Posts at Colleges and Universities
Taking on new roles as diversity officers are Pierre Morton at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire, Harris Akinloye at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, Keesha Burke-Henderson at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia, Mary J. Wardell-Ghirarduzzi at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and Constance Porter at Rice University in Houston.
Report Finds De Facto Racial Segregation in Virginia’s Public Universities
At the University of Virginia, just 13 percent of undergraduates identified as Black or Hispanic; that share is 60 percent lower than the state’s population ages 18 to 24. The College of William & Mary and Christopher Newport University are near large Black population centers but each of their student bodies is just 7 percent Black.
Five African Americans Who Have Been Appointed to Diversity Positions in Higher Education
Taking on new diversity roles are John Johnson at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, Angela Mosley-Monts at the University of Arkansas, Carllos Lassiter at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, Ivy Banks at the Association of American Universities, and Samira M. Payne at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Caltech Has Climbed Aboard the Diversity Bandwagon and Has the Numbers to Prove It
JBHE has conducted an annual survey on the number of Black students in the entering classes of the nation's top-ranked research universities for nearly 30 years. On many occasions, the number of Black students in the first-year class at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena could have been counted on one hand. Not anymore.
Five Black Scholars Appointed to Higher Education Diversity Posts
Recently hired to diversity posts are Paul Frazier at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Sylvia R. Carey-Butler at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, LaVar Charleston at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jeanne Arnold at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and Wilmore Webley at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Four African American Appointed to Diversity Posts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The new assistant deans for diversity at MIT are Alana Anderson in the Schwarzman College of Computing, Nandi Bynoe in the School of Engineering, Tracie Jones in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and Bryan Thomas Jr. in the Sloan School of Management.
