Events

Symposium at Cornell
Organized by the Future of Minority Studies Research Project (FMS)

www.fmsproject.cornell.edu

30th July 2005

“Diversity and Excellence in American Higher Education: The Road Ahead”

Conceived and organized by Satya P. Mohanty (Professor of English and Director of the FMS Summer Institute, Cornell) and Daniel Little (Professor of Philosophy and Chancellor, University of Michigan-Dearborn)

The recently published book, Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education (University of Virginia Press) by William Bowen, Martin Kurzweil, and Eugene Tobin, serves as a launching pad for this FMS symposium.

Participants:

Nancy Cantor (Psychology and Women’s Studies, Chancellor and President of Syracuse University)

Jeffrey Lehman (Law, President of Cornell University)

Daniel Little (Philosophy, Chancellor of Michigan-Dearborn)

Michael McPherson (Economics, former president of Macalester College, now President of the Spencer Foundation)

Claude Steele (Lucy Stern Professor in the Social Sciences at Stanford; from Fall 2005: Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences)

Eugene Tobin (History, co-author of Equity and Excellence…; former president of Hamilton College, now Program Officer, Liberal Arts Colleges Program, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)

The Topic:

The focus of the symposium is on the nature and value of genuine diversity on our campuses. The Bowen-Kurzweil-Tobin book makes the important point that genuine diversity will not be possible on our campuses without diversity of socio-economic class. The FMS symposium will deal with questions of access, but will also try to define the ideal of a genuinely diverse campus that students from various social backgrounds will experience as welcoming and intellectually stimulating.

Equal access to colleges and universities is the first step in achieving greater equity and genuine excellence in higher education. But it is only the first step. Universities need to think much more deeply than they have up to this point about what is involved in creating an environment that builds maximally on intellectual and social diversity in the service of a vibrant educational experience for all students. The fissures created by social inequality and cultural conflict are all too apparent in the daily lives of citizens across our country and in countries throughout the world, and these fissures surface on the college campus as well. The legacy of separation (even mistrust) associated with racism and poverty, and cultural or ethnic conflict, is difficult to overcome. As educators, we need to succeed in creating better environments where educational success, communication across backgrounds, and broad civility are the hallmarks of learning. How can we build a richly diverse and welcoming campus where the full range of students we've attracted to the campus can learn effectively and can engage fully with each other and with the world? How can we create an environment where diversity and excellence are mutually reinforcing values?

The participants, who are all prominent thinkers, scholars, and academic leaders, will outline their vision of intellectual and cultural diversity as a democratic social ideal, responding in part to the recent critiques by some that our campuses are politically homogeneous. The speakers will focus on the nature of the ideally diverse educational institution and examine the challenges that lie ahead in the 21st century.

For more information, contact Satya P. Mohanty at spm5@cornell.edu

Recommended Reading:

Bowen, William et al. Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education. University of Virginia Press, 2005. Ch. 6 & 7.