Diversity Web is
an ambitious, multi-faceted, and still developing resource for people concerned
about issues of diversity in higher education: educational mission, campus
climate, curriculum focus, and connections with the larger society. The site
is a collaborative project of the Association of American Colleges and
Universities and the University of Maryland at College Park in cooperation with
Diversity Connections. Resources on this site are organized around the following
priorities:
Institutional vision, leadership, and systemic change
Recruitment, retention, and affirmative action
Curriculum transformation
Faculty and staff involvement
Student experience and development
Campus-community connections
Diversity reearch, evaluation, and impact
Making diversity news
The American Asssociation for Higher
Education is a national organization of faculty, administrators,
and students as well as policymakers and leaders from foundations, government,
and business convinced that higher education should play a more central role
in national life and that our institutions can and must become more effective.
The AAHE caucuses are organizations managed by and for AAHE members
with support from the AAHE national office. The caucuses sponsor sessions,
workshops, and social activities at AAHE's conferences. The larger caucuses
sponsor additional activities throughout the year and some produce a newsletter
or other communication to caucus members. AAHE currently offers membership in
the following caucuses: American Indian/Alaska Native; Asian and Pacific; Black;
Hispanic; Student; and Women's. The Black Caucus has arranged a study tour
to Africa this year (1997); the Hispanic and Asia/Pacific caucuses are
considering similar programs. All the caucuses have presences at the annual
convention. Membership in a caucus carries an additional fee over basic dues;
the membership brochure has the details.
The Office of
Minorities in Higher Education of the American Council on Education is observing
its tenth anniversary supervising ACE's Minority Initiative, a response to declining
rates of minotity participation in higher education. The Office provides reporting
and extensive assistance to colleges and universities seking to improve their
recruitment and retention of minority students, faculty, and administrators.
It also sponsors a biennial national conference on "Educating One-Third of a
Nation."
The World Wide Web is a gold mine, and not just for Bill Gates. Diligent digging
will turn up every major and many minor programs of financial assistance
for minority undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. These sites are primary:
National Research Council --
Fellowship Office administers a Ford Foundation predoctoral and dissertation
fellowships program designed to increase the presence of "underrepresented"
minorities (excludes Asian-Americans but includes Polynesians and Micronesians
if not Melanesians) on college and university faculties. There are 55 predoctoral
and 20 dissertation fellowships, awarded annually in nationwide competition.
Fellowships for
Minority Students is a Web page of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation
(CIC), a consortium of mostly Midwestern research universities plus Penn State.
Now approaching its twentieth anniversary, CIC offers predoctoral fellowships
to African-Americans, Native Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Puerto Ricans who
seriously intend to pursue careers in teaching and academic research. The site
includes information on the CIC/GE Foundation predoctoral fellowships in the
sciences and engineering; the Dorothy Danforth Compton Fellowship Program of
the Danforth Foundation; the Ford Foundation doctoral fellowships; the Fund
for Theological Education; the National Physical Science Consortium's graduate
fellowships for minorities and women in the physical sciences; the Patricia
Roberts Harris Fellowship Program of the U.S. Department of Education Office
of Postsecondary Education; the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund; two State
of Illinois programs providing support for minority students in Illinois colleges
and universities and for graduate students who agree to seek and accept
appropriate employment at an Illinois college or university upon completion
of the Ph.D.; the National Science Foundation Minority Graduate Fellowships;
the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Minority Fellowship
Program; the Trustee Fellowship and Benjmin E. Mays Fellowship programs at the
University of Chicago; the GEM Ph.D. Science Fellowship Program for
undergraduates (extremely lucrative, including the required summer internship);
and the AT&T Bell Laboratories (now presumably Lucent Technologies) Cooperative
Research Fellowship Program for Minorities in science and engineering.
The National Association
for Ethnic Studies is the leading organization for faculty, students and others
interested in ethnic studies programs. Headquartered at the University of Arizona in
Tempe, it sponsors publications and conferences and serves as a forum for promoting
reserch, study, curriculum design, and publications. The Executive Council
includes scholars and professionals from everal disciplines who are available
to serve as consultants.
A number of Web sites offer directories and links to ethnic studies programs:
The Contact Center Network Nonprofit Directory has Web links to hundreds of
nonprofit groups, organized by field of activity. Pertinent listings include:
Smith, Daryl G. with Lisa E. Wolf and Bonnie E. Busenberg, Achieving Faculty
Diversity: Debunking the Myths. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges
and Universities, 1996.
Padilla, Raymond V. and Rudolfo C. Chavez, Editors. The Leaning Ivory Tower:
Latino Professors in American Universities. Albany, New York: N.Y. SUNY Press, 1995.
