A college and university consortium that advances diversity in higher education has received a $5.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The , which 乐播传媒 College joined as a lead institution in 2015, will use the five-year grant to accelerate efforts to diversify the faculties at its participating colleges and universities.

Nina Hagel is a lecturer in politics and one of 乐播传媒’ four C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The grant from the New York City-based foundation will also broaden C3鈥檚 reach beyond its lead liberal arts colleges 鈥� Middlebury, 乐播传媒, Connecticut, and Williams 鈥� and its partner research universities, the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia, Michigan, and the University of Chicago.

鈥淛ust a few years into our association with C3, we鈥檙e seeing tangible benefits from this innovative program,鈥� said 乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer.

鈥溊植ゴ� students from underrepresented groups have gotten a taste of graduate-level academics thanks to C3 fellowships. The consortium has introduced us to bright young teacher-scholars from diverse backgrounds whose experiences and perspectives make our faculty even more creative.

鈥淎nd, of course, the exchange of ideas and forging of relationships with our C3 partners has been invaluable. We are convinced at 乐播传媒 of the formative value of diversity at every level, and our participation in C3 is a powerful tool for advancing diversity.鈥�

“We are convinced at 乐播传媒 of the formative value of diversity at every level, and our participation in C3 is a powerful tool for advancing diversity.”

Reaching both students and faculty from backgrounds underrepresented on U.S. campuses, C3 bases its work, in part, on strengthening ties between small liberal arts colleges like 乐播传媒 and the partner universities, which are so-called Research I (R1) schools. This benefits both students from the small schools who are considering university postgraduate programs, and university postdocs drawn to teaching in the liberal arts environment.

鈥淭he mutual exposure between the universities and the liberal arts schools has presented a terrific opportunity for all concerned,鈥� says Kathryn Low, interim vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at 乐播传媒. With a particular need to enhance faculty diversity at those small schools, Low says, C3 helps introduce the residential liberal arts model 鈥� with its opportunities for strong student-faculty relationships and for involvement across the breadth of academic life 鈥� to scholars steeped in the R1 environment.

Kathryn Graff Low is acting dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs during 2017-18. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

For students, the C3 Undergraduate Fellowship Program benefits rising juniors and seniors who attend any of the 28 colleges and universities in the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers Consortium. (LADO co-founded C3 with the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School.) Since 2014, nine 乐播传媒 students have received C3 fellowships, supporting academic experiences at the partner universities.

Meanwhile, C3 funding and programming have steered young postdocs to faculty positions at the LADO schools (although that programming is about to change, as explained below). At 乐播传媒 there are four C3 Postdoctoral Fellows. Coming to the college after attaining their terminal degrees at partner universities, they are Nina Hagel, of the politics department, and Hoang Tran, education, both from Berkeley; and from Columbia, Ian Shin, history, and Rohan Sud, philosophy.

Shown with his dog Archie, Rohan Sud is a member of the philosophy faculty and one of four C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows at 乐播传媒 in 2016鈥�17. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

鈥淭he C3 postdocs have brought exciting new areas of inquiry to the curriculum, such as Asian American history and the politics of authenticity,鈥� says Kerry O鈥橞rien, assistant dean of the faculty. 鈥淎nd the nature of the post-doc position has given them time to teach, advise thesis writers and other students, but also to pursue their own research.鈥�

乐播传媒 began participating in LADO in 2013. C3 is one of a variety of avenues 乐播传媒 uses to enrich diversity: For instance, Mellon funding also supports the college鈥檚 Diversity and Faculty Renewal Program, which supports young postdocs through a year of curriculum development, research, advising and teaching, after which they鈥檙e promoted to a tenure-track position.

Both the Mellon Diversity and the C3 fellows are 鈥渕entored, and learn the liberal arts and the way we work at 乐播传媒,鈥� Low explains. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been good to have these superb scholars on board. It has further diversified our faculty, and students have found these postdocs wonderful to work with.鈥�

鈥淥ne thing that has truly impressed me is how thoughtful they are about their research and teaching,鈥� Krista Aronson agrees. An associate professor of psychology, Aronson mentors the C3 fellows.

鈥淭hey put a lot of care into developing their classes and related student work, such as thesis advising. They also bring a rich array of topics, classes and perspectives to campus that we otherwise wouldn’t have.鈥�

Through the new Mellon grant, the Postdoctoral Fellowships will be replaced with C3 Professorships that support up to two years of tenure-track positions in the humanities. With a minimum of 16 such positions to be allocated across all of the LADO colleges, two C3 professors will come to 乐播传媒 and to each of the three other lead liberal arts schools.

A 2016 symposium on Early Modern literature that brought new scholars from underrepresented backgrounds to campus was part of 乐播传媒’s New Scholars series, which C3 is adapting in conjunction with the Mellon grant. Jose Villagrana, second panelist from right, is now a Mellon Diversity and Faculty Renewal Fellow at 乐播传媒. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College).

By putting recipients directly onto the tenure track, Low explains, the new approach gives a sense of security to both the C3 beneficiaries and the institutions that take them on. 鈥淚f you can offer these talented graduate students or recent grads a permanent position right up front, that鈥檚 better for them. And it鈥檚 better for us institutionally, because we鈥檙e more likely to have this person permanently.

鈥淚n terms of diversifying the liberal arts colleges, I think C3 felt that hiring someone right into a tenure-track line would be more successful.鈥�

In other changes related to the grant, graduates of any institution 鈥� not just the four partner universities 鈥� will now be eligible for C3-supported positions at LADO colleges.

Based on a model pioneered by 乐播传媒, C3 is also introducing a New Scholar Series to fund opportunities to bring emerging underrepresented scholars to campus for talks or symposia that speak to dynamic areas of their disciplines. The 乐播传媒 series, which began in 2016 with the symposium “New Approaches to Early Modern Literature and Culture,” puts visiting scholars together with 乐播传媒 faculty and students in a variety of academic activities.

That series joins a slate of opportunities聽鈥� as the name of the consortium states聽鈥� to create connections among undergrads, faculty and graduate students at the LADO schools and the four research universities. Highlighting its programming are C3 Summits that bring together undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members, diversity officers, deans, and presidents to focus on the program鈥檚 mission and goals.

In 2015, 乐播传媒 hosted the second C3 Summit, designed to bring together underrepresented students from LADO institutions and graduate students from the partner universities. Williams hosted the 2017 event and Middlebury will host the next in the series in November 2018.

C3, Low says, 鈥渉as been very productive for 乐播传媒 in many ways. It has been a success here.鈥�

The consortium was launched in 2012 with funding from the Mellon Foundation. The new grant, which began Oct. 1 and supports the program through 2022, will bring the foundation鈥檚 commitment to the program to $10.9 million over a decade.

When talk turns to achieving greater access to U.S. higher education, the question is often framed as how more students can get a college degree.

This weekend at 乐播传媒, a national conference will look at a different access point and ask different questions.

Questions such as: How can higher-ed institutions help aspiring young scholars from underrepresented groups gain access to the professoriate at U.S. colleges like 乐播传媒?

And, in the context of student learning, why is this goal central to the mission of 乐播传媒 and similar colleges?

The gathering is the , and 乐播传媒 is hosting the event as a lead member of C3, whose other members are Connecticut, Middlebury, and Williams colleges and Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley.

The three-day program will draw some 200 U.S. undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and senior college administrators to tackle the theme “Practicing Communities:聽The Transformative Power of Race in the Academy.”

To 乐播传媒, they’ll bring their collective best efforts to address race and the pursuit of graduate school; at the same time, the summit will create real-time mentoring and networking opportunities for the younger participants.

Crystal Williams, the chair of this year’s C3 Summit Planning Committee, is an associate vice president and chief diversity officer at 乐播传媒, as well as a professor of English and noted poet.

Since her arrival in 2013, Williams and her staff in the Office of Intercultural Education have deployed new programs to support diversity and inclusion at 乐播传媒, many of which are student-facing.

And if those programs support the student experience, it seems appropriate on the eve of the C3 Summit to talk with Williams about how a more diverse faculty helps to advance student learning.

To support that goal at 乐播传媒, the college received a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and received another Mellon grant of $400,000 in the college’s capacity as a lead C3 college.

Crystal Williams, associate vice president and chief diversity officer at 乐播传媒, chairs the C3 Summit Planning Committee. (Leah Nash)

Q. Twenty-two percent of 乐播传媒 students are U.S. underrepresented minorities. On the 乐播传媒 faculty, 15.4 percent of 209 professors are underrepresented minorities. Is what C3 might do for 乐播传媒 (and other institutions) a numbers question 鈥� making the number of faculty of color at least comparable to student representation? Or is that too simplistic?

A: That 1:1 argument is both far too simplistic and it is dangerous. It very quickly leads us to a question of quotas. And quotas are absolutely not what we鈥檙e focused on, what we aspire to achieve, or what aligns to the historic mission of the institution.

The importance of racial, cultural, and social diversity within any group of people, and especially any institution of higher education, has to do with the very definition of excellence.

At a college like 乐播传媒, the intellectual endeavor is enriched when many different kinds of people are engaged in the production and investigation of knowledge. That鈥檚 the first point.

“The true power of difference is that we learn we can and should learn from everyone.”

It is also true that faculty and staff are role models 鈥� for every student. And, as it is important for students from underrepresented groups to have regular and substantive interaction with people who share similar backgrounds and experiences, it is also important that they have regular and substantive interaction with people who do not share those backgrounds and experiences.

This is also true for white students, first-generation-to-college students, LGBTQ+ identified students聽鈥� all students. The true power of difference is that we learn we can and should learn from everyone.

So, though the 1:1 equation is easy to make, it points us to an incomplete and overly simple view of why diversity is important 鈥� and to whom it is important. The mission and history of this institution, in particular, suggest that we should be at the vanguard of this particular effort.

Q: You have said, in outlining the goals of C3, that when professors and students answer questions together, those questions and answers are 鈥渋nextricably linked to our cultural, social, gendered, racialized selves…. The more diverse the people are who ask those questions, the more complete, exciting and dynamic the resulting knowledge is.鈥�

This statement emphasizes the role of a professor鈥檚 self-identity in the classroom. Has that changed in the last generation, how a professor鈥檚 鈥渟elf鈥� supports learning and teaching?

A: Yes. In many ways we are still working towards the acknowledgement of the whole person as professor.

There are disciplines that actively train scholars to attempt to divorce their personal selves/histories/cultures from their intellectual selves, which has always seemed counterintuitive to me 鈥� and impossible, in many ways.

Increasingly, however, institutions are thinking about the whole student, the whole person, and the contingencies related to whole personhood must also be reflected in how we think about, serve, and support our faculty.

For instance, we have begun to think and act collectively in support of faculty with families, which is a whole-person concern. So while we have many improvements to make in this regard, that the question arises 鈥� having to do with faculty availability during certain hours or days in relation to their larger selves 鈥� is important.

In this effort, we have a long way to go.

Q: A 乐播传媒 professor recently talked about her path to the professoriate. In high school, she was told she was not college material. She graduated in the bottom three of her high school class (not the bottom third, bottom three!).

This kind of diversity (socio-economic / first generation) . Do you see something distinctive about what a professor who occupies this definition of diversity 鈥� a person who was never on the 鈥渢rack鈥� to college, let alone to graduate school and the professoriate 鈥� can give to students?

“When people understand that there are no identity-based strictures for what they or other people can accomplish, they become strong advocates for a kind of fundamental and automatic inclusion.”

A: Yes. Absolutely. As I said before, it is important that students 鈥� and all students, first-generation-to-college students as well as students who come from multiple generations of college graduates 鈥� understand that people who are in the professoriate come from many types of backgrounds. That is the normative frame that we would be wise to use because it is this frame that opens all students to the idea of possibility 鈥� both for themselves and for others.

When people understand that there are no identity-based strictures for what they or other people can accomplish, they become strong advocates for a kind of fundamental and automatic inclusion.

Students should “understand that people who are in the professoriate come from many types of backgrounds,” Williams says. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Beyond 乐播传媒, they don鈥檛 hesitate, as managers, to hire people who look or speak very differently than they. As teachers, they don鈥檛 hesitate to require the best from each of their students. In boardrooms, they advocate the kind of rigorous inquiry that requires diversity of thought and experience.

In short, their belief that our differences are a source of mutual power has an incredible impact on their lives and on our collective.

So, yes, it is important that she is among us 鈥� and willing to share her experience. In addition to her work in the classroom around whatever disciplinary questions she鈥檚 training students to ask, she is also doing a different, deeply important type of teaching that has the ability to transform any host of endeavors her students undertake.

as not when 鈥渆verybody feels good all of the time. And I鈥檓 not particularly interested in trying to make a community in which everybody says the right thing all of the time, or in which everybody has the ‘right’ answer.鈥� Instead, you said, 鈥榮uccess鈥� is when everyone feels respected, included, valued, and empowered enough in this 鈥渃ommon endeavor鈥� to 鈥渟peak up and help create change鈥� when needed.

How does having a more diverse faculty specifically help to create this kind of 乐播传媒 community?

A. When there exists diversity of experience and thought, so too exists differences of opinion.

“A diverse faculty helps the institution continue to push forward, ask difficult questions, and not rest on its laurels.”

Engaging in productive dialog and action with people of differing opinions towards a common endeavor provides a very important model for students. And, in the world we live in, we need more models of civil discourse, productive disagreement, and collective action.

But also, a diverse faculty helps the institution continue to push forward, ask difficult questions, and not rest on its laurels. Again, diversity of thought and experience is a catalyst for creating, nurturing, and sustaining a community of people who must work together towards, if nothing else, the educational goals we鈥檝e set for ourselves.