Press Release

CONTACT: Debra Humphreys
(202) 387-3760
E-mail: humphreys@aacu.org

Inclusive Excellence in Higher Education Goal of New Project Supported by The Ford Foundation

Association of American Colleges and Universities to Issue Briefing Papers and Conduct Forums on Diversity, Inclusion, and Institutional Renewal

Washington, DC—October 10, 2003—The Association of American Colleges and Universities announced today that it has received a $225,000 planning grant from The Ford Foundation to explore how colleges and universities can embed campus diversity in campus cultures and institutional structures so that it becomes a resource to achieve academic excellence for all students. The project aims to develop resources to help campuses move from commitment and progress in the area of access to more integrated and pervasive action that links campus diversity and academic excellence.

This project builds upon decades of work to build more inclusive campus communities, new scholarship that has transformed disciplines, and extensive research on student learning. It also, however, is designed to address a pervasive problem in colleges and universities across the country. Thousands of separate campus diversity initiatives are inadequately integrated and coordinated across different parts of the campus community. In addition, despite impressive gains in increasing access to college for traditionally underrepresented or underserved students, troubling disparities in achievement across groups persist. This initiative will explore with key stakeholders during the next year ways to address these remaining inequities.

"In spite of increased access to higher education for students of color, one still finds inequities in educational outcomes, particularly among African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Native
Hawaiians, and other groups with a history of exclusion,” said Estela Mara Bensimon, professor of higher education and director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, and member of AAC&U's Board of Directors. “AAC&U is ideally positioned to do this project that will move higher education to the next stage of diversity— ensuring equity and excellence in educational outcomes for all students.”

Inclusive Excellence builds on AAC&U's long history of commitment to issues of diversity, inclusion, and excellence in undergraduate education. The project will draw on the many resources developed by the association through its other major initiatives including: American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy, and Liberal Learning, Greater Expectations: The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College, and the James Irvine Foundation Campus Diversity Evaluation Project.
“The Supreme Court's recent decision on affirmative action invites every campus to make engagement with diversity central to its educational mission,” said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. “This initiative will help the academy fulfill the educational promise of diversity both on campus and in the college curriculum.”

The project is being coordinated by staff members in two of AAC&U's program offices— the Office of Education and Institutional Renewal and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives—and led by AAC&U Vice President Alma Clayton-Pedersen.

The project involves four sets of activities and outcomes:

• AAC&U will commission four briefing papers on the academy's evolving understandings of the connection between diversity and excellence.
• A series of nine invitational forums with key constituents and stakeholders will be held to illuminate ways that diversity and inclusion can be catalysts for institutional renewal.
• Seven institutions will be selected as part of a pilot project designed to test new frameworks for inclusion and institutional change.
• AAC&U will produce online a collection of institutional resources available to all colleges and universities interested in developing their own campus' commitment to inclusive excellence.

For additional information and updates on the project, see www.aacu.org/inclusive_excellence/index.cfm.

For information about other AAC&U diversity initiatives, publications, and upcoming meetings, see www.aacu.org/issues/diversity/.

AAC&U is the leading national association devoted to advancing and strengthening liberal learning for all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Since its founding in 1915, AAC&U's membership has grown to more than 1000 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found at www.aacu.org.