Grant Summary
$99,978 over 18 months. With generous support from the Teagle Foundation, Cornell University has initiated a working group on diversity, college completion, and achievement. We are fortunate to be joined in this endeavor by four nearby liberal arts institutions-Colgate University, Hamilton College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Wells College. Although our institutions are not currently collaborating on diversity issues, each member is independently pursuing a range of diversity-related initiatives. Bringing together faculty, administrators, and undergraduates from these five institutions will allow us to learn from each other's experiences. It will also provide a diverse range of perspectives from which to explore and evaluate programs designed to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in college completion and achievement.
Each member institution will host at least one meeting of the working group. The project will culminate with a report that: (1) provides a detailed list of how colleges and universities attempt to create supportive learning environments for minority students, (2) explores arguments for and against these programs, (3) develops detailed best practices for managing a racially and ethnically diverse campus, and (4) offers guidelines for how to evaluate the effectiveness of diversity-related programs.