Promoting diversity reason for campus grant
Students, faculty and staff may apply for a $3,000 grant to help promote diversity
on campus.
The Diversity Incentive Grants Program is available for the fourth year through
the provost’s office. The total amount available is $20,000, although each
individual may only receive up to $3,000.
“The provost feels that it is important on this campus to provide an opportunity
to get involved in projects that are related to diversity,” said David Williams,
Institutional Diversity assistant vice president.
Diversity is important to a student’s education, Williams said.
“We live in a diverse society. In order for students to be educated, you
must be prepared to live and work in a diverse society.”
Applications for the grant are due April 30. They can be obtained at dean or department
chair offices. The money is awarded for the 2001-2002 academic year.
Applications will be selected by a panel of faculty, students and staff.
“They’re looking for creative ideas that they feel may help accomplish
their goals,” Williams said.
Past proposals that received grant money include: an improvement of the African-American
film collection; the creation of a CMU library diversity resource Web page; Dow
Jones high school journalism workshop; religion, race and crime symposium; and
an addition of Native-American materials to Clarke Historical Library.
“It’s a program that should have a budget of at least $50,000 to do
some larger projects,” Williams said. “But I feel it’s been a beneficial
program in the four years we’ve had it.”
Despite programs like the incentive grants, CMU still has a lot of room to improve
diversity, Williams said.
“We have a long way to go. We have a number of great things happening, but
there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
