Perhaps because keeping score is an intrinsic part of competitive sports, the NCAA has tracked diversity by the numbers, counting how many minorities and women work as coaches and athletic directors, particularly at schools in big-time Division I. With the organization taking that singular approach, member colleges and universities overall have…

Allegheny College is the 32nd oldest college in the nation. In 2015 it will celebrate its bicentennial. The college has rigorous standards and is dedicated to the ideal of providing a transformative education to ambitious, talented students regardless of their social or financial means. Set in rural northwestern Pennsylvania, this predominantly…

When Dr. Kumea Shorter-Gooden took on her newly created job this month at the University of Maryland's flagship College Park campus, she assumed a challenge at the school with a lot riding on her shoulders--helping the University of Maryland strengthen its diversity efforts and, thus, its relevance to the state in the future and standing among the…

Despite decades of research and recommendations, a revolving door continues to cycle Black and Hispanic faculty into and out of predominantly White higher education institutions. Interviews with the scholars and researchers who have examined this issue in recent years suggest that, although some institutions have ramped up their recruitment and…

During the past 10 years, Cornell University has made significant strides in recruiting underrepresented minorities and women in its faculty ranks, but a new internal study at the university is revealing that its success is a mixed bag. The number of minority faculty has grown about 52 percent, and the number of female faculty members has…

Jose Lopez is an assistant professor of physics at Saint Peter's College, a Catholic school in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he has been on the tenure track since receiving his Ph.D. from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2005. Essential to the completion of his doctoral work was a fellowship from the state designed to increase faculty diversity…

When Colgate University decided a few years ago to recast its diversity efforts, it joined a small, but growing, number of schools across the U.S. in taking a new approach to a decades-old challenge of how best to make their school more appealing to people from all walks of life and more compelling to employers as a good place to recruit. Colgate,…

This article discusses how a Harvard-educated scholar of English and poetry, Dr. M. Lee Pelton puts a prominent face on changes that are underway at Boston's Emerson College. Faced with a public controversy over its limited faculty diversity, Emerson College has responded with a spate of hirings and promotions of minorities, capped by the…

Even as a little girl, Dr. Nitasha Sharma aspired to become a college professor like her parents, whose careers let the family spend entire summers or longer in either her mother's native Brooklyn, New York, or her father's native India. She dreamed of long vacations as a grown-up and going home for lunch on weekdays. But during a stay in India…

Women's numbers in coveted tenure positions and leadership posts--while growing--still lag behind those of men. From the implementation of family-friendly policies to aggressive diversity initiatives, many universities are trying to change that. The American Association of University Professors reported in a 2006 study that women are being hired…

For a decade, St. Cloud State University has worked to change a broad climate of intolerance that had pervaded the campus of the second-largest university in Minnesota. It has struggled for years to overcome entrenched racism on campus and in the surrounding community. Minority enrollment and faculty of color have increased. The provost is Indian…

The author reports on the dismissal of a longtime diversity administrator Dr. Cordell Black, combined with a declining minority enrollment and a deflated state budget, which has raised concerns about the University of Maryland's commitment to diversity and resulted to student protests. For years, the university has worked hard to reverse the…

George Washington Carver, the legendary scientist and educator, spent five years at the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, known today as Iowa State University, as a student, graduate student and faculty member in the late 19th century. Nearly 120 years later, Carver's presence still looms large on the Iowa State campus. Carver…

This article features The PhD Project, an organization devoted to boosting the number of Black, Hispanic and Native American business school professors. In the 16 years since The PhD Project launched, the number has risen from fewer than 300 out of 26,000 to more than 1,000 today. After making an indelible impact on business faculty ranks, The PhD…

This article discusses the initiatives of Purdue University President France Cordova in boosting minority and female representation among administration and students and in improving overall undergraduate performance. Dr. France Cordova is by no means the first college president to declare increasing the presence of women and minorities on campus…