Diversity

The tenth annual Hollywood Diversity Report produced by the Entertainment and Media Research Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles finds that, for the first time, overall cast diversity in television shows reflected the population across all platforms following an upward trend over the last decade.

The new diversity officers are Chancey Page at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, S. Brooke Vick at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Donyale R. Padgett at Wayne State University in Detroit. and Laura Renée Chandler at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

A new report from the the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C., finds that African Americans account for 13.6 percent of the U.S. population, but only 2.1 percent of Senate personal office top staffers. Of the 100 chiefs of staff in the U.S. Senate, only one is Black.

Nicole Belisle is the new chief diversity officer at Palomar College in San Marcos, California. Rosevelt Noble has been named associate dean of students for equity, diversity, and inclusion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and Tracye Y. Davis is the inaugural executive director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan.

Terrence Mitchell was appointed executive director for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania. Faye Belgrave has been named vice president and chief diversity officer at Virginia Commonwealth University and Tammy Bennett is the inaugural vice president for inclusive excellence in philanthropy at the University of Cincinnati Foundation.

Stephanie Akunvabey has been named associate vice president for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at Pace University in New York. Alton M. Standifer was appointed vice provost for inclusive excellence director of the Office of Institutional Diversity at the University of Georgia and Ashton Murray is the inaugural chief diversity officer and vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Rockefeller University in New York City.

Dwight Hamilton has been named the chief diversity officer at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. Lois V. Greene is the new senior vice president of wellness, diversity, equity, and inclusion at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, and B. Elliott Renfroe was named chief diversity officer at Greenville University in Illinois.

In 1994 when the Republic of South Africa ended apartheid and allowed free democratic elections, Whites made up 83 percent of the academics at the nation's universities. Today, 67 percent of the professors at public universities are White.

The University of Michigan will invest $79 million to support and recruit 30 new faculty members to the Ann Arbor campus as part of a nationwide effort to enhance inclusion and equity across the biomedical and health sciences community. The Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation (M-PACT) is supported by a five-year, $15.8 million grant awarded from the National Institutes of Health.

The Vanderbilt Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation Program (V-FIRST) will build upon recent strategies such as toolkits for inclusive faculty searches, a discovery lecture series for national late-stage postdoctoral fellows from minoritized groups, and innovative institutional policy changes regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Shad White, the auditor for the State of Mississippi recently released a report showing how much was being spent on diversity initiatives by public universities in the state. The report found that Mississippi universities reported spending $23.4 million on diversity programs from July of 2019 to now. Higher education officials in the state staunchly defended their diversity programs.

Taking on new roles in higher education relating to diversity are Shawn Washington at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, Sheree M. Ohen at Amherst College in Massachusetts, and Carol A. Sumner at Northern Illinois University.