Top Scholars Meet at Rutgers to Discuss the Future of Diversity in Higher Education
Susan Sturm, the George M. Jaffin Professor of Law and Social Responsibility and director of the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School
A group of top researchers and practitioners interested in shaping the future of higher education gathered Dec. 3-5 at Rutgers University in Brunswick, N.J., to consider the direction of higher education and how to close the opportunity gaps. “The Future of Diversity and Opportunity in Higher Education: A National Forum on Innovation and Collaboration” — a collaborative effort among the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School, Columbia University, Rutgers University and the College Board — brought together university presidents, provosts, policymakers, chief diversity officers and many more for a
three-day discussion and explored ways to create architecture that will sustain institutional change, develop institutional collaborations and leverage new networks across disciplines, fields and institutions.
There is an urgent need to identify effective and lawful ways to advance diversity and opportunity beyond affirmative action and increase access and participation for those currently marginalized from high quality higher education. The work presented at the conference highlighted transformative leadership, strategies that develop opportunity and knowledge networks, and programs and practices that enable colleges and universities to reconnect merit to their mission of building capacity, advancing knowledge and addressing pressing social problems.
Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, and Richard
L. McCormick, president of Rutgers, started things off with a discussion about the uncertain legal and political environments, which require rethinking conventional strategies for addressing racial/ethnic, gender and socioeconomic underparticipation in postsecondary education. They also discussed the barriers to achieving inclusion and diversity, including the differential opportunity networks and the growing significance of collaboration among public and private institutions and across
the education spectrum, including K-12, community colleges, liberal arts colleges and research universities.
Participants were asked to chart a direction for future work and share effective practice programs that have a proven track record. In an effort to inform the national policy agenda, works
of strategically placed individuals who can affect policy and practice within and across institutions were linked, and the next critical steps in research and experimentation were identified.
Other speakers included Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University; Freeman Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Anthony Marx, president of Amherst College; Colin Diver, president of Reed College; Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board; and Lani Guinier, Harvard Law School professor and civil rights scholar, among others.
The panel discussion focused on success stories, including programs at Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine and School of Social Work; programs at Clark University in Massachusetts and Vanderbilt and Fisk universities in Tennessee; the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program at the University of
Maryland, Baltimore County; and the work of such nonprofits
as the Posse Foundation.
