Irvine Diversity Grant

Irvine Diversity Grant | Diversity Seminars | 2003-2004 Participant Reflections
Junior Scholar Program | Summer Diversity Program

Tranforming the Institution: Diversity at Pitzer

The educational practice of diversity was formative and integral to Pitzer’s identity and ethos as a young college. Over the years, Pitzer has developed an internationally recognized program to advance intercultural understanding and social responsibility, an effort that embraces diversity on campus, in neighboring communities, and far beyond. Pitzer has been described as an institution in which diversity permeates people, learning, and service. Now our community has determined that it is ready to take the next step. Transformation of the College with respect to diversity – that which Daryl Smith describes as a paradigm shift for the entire institution – seems a tantalizingly close reality. To deepen, broaden, and thoroughly infuse a dynamic and active appreciation of diversity among all constituents of the Pitzer community is the major goal of our initiative. Achieving this larger goal, however, will require continuing self-examination and prodigious effort over the long term. Therefore, we welcome the timely opportunity to partner with the James Irvine Foundation as we endeavor to take our College to this next level of thinking and action.

Over the five years of this project, Pitzer intends to focus on three primary goals and objectives. The first is to deepen discourse about diversity, its significance educationally and socially. We are designing and offering seminars on the emerging diversity issues of the 21st century, and inviting guest speakers to stimulate discussions of these issues on campus.

The second is to continue efforts to represent diversity among our students, faculty, staff, and trustees. We have developed a scholarship enhancement fund to help more students of color to enroll at Pitzer. We are providing campus visits to attract more students of color to Pitzer. And we are designing brochures and web-based materials to encourage more students of color and international students to apply for admission to Pitzer.

We have created and filled a new tenure-track position in Asian American Sociology, a joint position with Sociology and the Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies. We have redesigned and implemented our Visiting Junior Scholars Program, and become a member of the Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence at Liberal Arts Colleges. And we have created a new Board of Trustees committee for social responsibility.

And last, but not least, we seek to intensify, systematically, students’ educational experience of diversity. We are conducting a baseline study, establishing benchmarks and indicators, and implementing a series of evaluation processes to assess the impact of this initiative on the attitudes and understandings of students with respect to diversity. We have created a student diversity leadership team which runs a summer diversity program for incoming students. And we have hired a full-time coordinator for the Center for Asian Pacific American Students (CAPAS).

« Back to Irvine Diversity Grant Main Page