The Irvine Grant Hits Retirement Age
Garris: Diversity Program had "Mixed" Results
Adam D'Luzansky
Last Updated: 6/23/06 Section: News
In December 2005, a CMC grant program worth roughly $800,000 came to an end. The James Irvine Foundation (www.irvine.org) funded this grant; one of several Irvine grants Claremont McKenna received over the years. This grant specifically was part of an invitation the Irvine Foundation extended to several colleges and universities throughout California. The invitation was for institutions to create a "self-study" that would evaluate areas that needed improvement in the area of diversity. According to Dean of Faculty Jerome Garris, who I interviewed recently regarding this subject, each of the five colleges has had similar Irvine grants; each administration personally drafts its own grant.
Garris said that CMC identified three main areas that it wanted to improve upon diversity-wise: faculty, student services, and student recruitment. This manifested itself in a four-point proposal: 1) new tenure track faculty, 2) post-doctoral non-tenure track faculty, 3) course development grants for faculty to design new courses, and 4) research grants for faculty to pursue diversity related issues.
Normally schools received one million dollars over three years to accomplish their proposal, but because CMC was one of the last institutions to apply for the money and because the Irvine Foundation had had endowment troubles, they received $804,000 instead.
Every six months from the grant's beginning, CMC was supposed to report to the Irvine Foundation on its progress. It coordinated with Darryl Smith, who was then the liaison at Irvine for CMC. Smith is now the Dean of Education at Claremont Graduate University. Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations Christopher Wiedey was in charge of drafting those reports.
I asked Garris how CMC went about achieving the stated goals, and as the grant expires, how successful he thought the process had been. Generally, he said that the grant had accomplished much of what the college had wanted, with some areas less so than others.
Garris said that CMC identified three main areas that it wanted to improve upon diversity-wise: faculty, student services, and student recruitment. This manifested itself in a four-point proposal: 1) new tenure track faculty, 2) post-doctoral non-tenure track faculty, 3) course development grants for faculty to design new courses, and 4) research grants for faculty to pursue diversity related issues.
Normally schools received one million dollars over three years to accomplish their proposal, but because CMC was one of the last institutions to apply for the money and because the Irvine Foundation had had endowment troubles, they received $804,000 instead.
Every six months from the grant's beginning, CMC was supposed to report to the Irvine Foundation on its progress. It coordinated with Darryl Smith, who was then the liaison at Irvine for CMC. Smith is now the Dean of Education at Claremont Graduate University. Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations Christopher Wiedey was in charge of drafting those reports.
I asked Garris how CMC went about achieving the stated goals, and as the grant expires, how successful he thought the process had been. Generally, he said that the grant had accomplished much of what the college had wanted, with some areas less so than others.
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