1993-2001 Projects

Between 1993 and 2001, AAC&U launched the first generation of projects under the American Commitments initiative. Funded by the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, these American Commitments projects informed thinking about diversity on college campuses and featured ways to make diversity a positive educational resource.

It supported faculty learning about cultural diversity in the United States and recommended ways to reflect American cultural and democratic pluralism in the curriculum.

The following projects were part of American Commitments from 1993-2001:

• The National Panel and Diversity Leadership Institutes
  The National Panel was comprised of scholars and campus leaders who have made significant contributions to our current understanding of cultural and democratic pluralism in American society.
• The Curriculum and Faculty Development Network and the Boundaries and Borderlands Summer Institutes
  The Curriculum and Faculty Development Network linked more than 100 institutions that worked to rethink the curriculum to provide ample opportunities for students to consider critical questions about American pluralism.
• DiversityWeb and Diversity Digest
  DiversityWeb is a comprehensive compendium of campus practices and resources about diversity in higher education. Diversity Digest is a periodical published by AAC&U to provide campus practitioners with readily available information about successful diversity initiatives around the country.
• American Pluralism and Campus Leadership
• Community Seminars on Diversity and Democracy
  With support from the Ford Foundation, AAC&U awarded small matching grants to several colleges and universities to plan and hold community seminars on diversity and democracy in contemporary society.
• Racial Legacies and Learning: An American Dialogue
  Racial Legacies and Learning brought campus and community partners together to study, discuss, and re-imagine what it means to be a citizen in a multiracial democracy.