Successful Mentoring: The Minority Training Program

In 1988, the Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, at the University of Arizona, initiated the Native American Training Program.

The goal of the program was to support Native American undergraduate students in obtaining B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. degrees in wildlife and fisheries science or natural resources management. Funding was provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In 1992, the Native American Training Program was expanded to include all minorities and the name was changed to the Minority Training Program with funding now provided by the U.S. Dept. of Interior.

"The program is designed to assist students in completing Bachelor of Science degrees based on mentorship between faculty and the graduate student body," says O. Eugene Maughan, Director of the Minority Training Program.

"The program has been very successful," says Maughan. This year 10 students of Hispanic, African American, and Native American origin have graduated with B.S. degrees and six have been accepted to graduate programs across the United States.

"We keep the program small so that we can provide the necessary support to assure students are successful in the university system," says Maughan.

America's colleges and universities differ in many ways. Some are public, others are independent; some are large urban universities, some are two-year community colleges, others small rural campuses. Some offer graduate and professional programs, others focus primarily on undergraduate education. Each of our more than 3,000 colleges and universities has its own specific and distinct mission.

This collective diversity among institutions is one of the great strengths of America's higher education system, and has helped make it the best in the world. Preserving that diversity is essential if we hope to serve the needs of our democratic society.

Similarly, many colleges and universities share a common belief, born of experience, that diversity in their student bodies, faculties, and staff is important for them to fulfill their primary mission: providing a quality education. The public is entitled to know why these institutions believe so strongly that racial and ethnic diversity should be one factor among the many considered in admissions and hiring. The reasons include:

• Diversity enriches the educational experience. We learn from those whose experiences, beliefs, and perspectives are different from our own, and these lessons can be taught best in a richly diverse intellectual and social environment.
• It promotes personal growth- and a healthy society. Diversity challenges stereotyped preconceptions; it encourages critical thinking; and it helps students learn to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds.
• It strengthens communities and the workplace. Education within a diverse setting prepares students to become good citizens in an increasingly complex, pluralistic society; it fosters mutual respect and teamwork; and it helps build communities whose members are judged by the quality of their character and their contributions.
• It enhances America's economic competitiveness. Sustaining the nation's prosperity in the 21st century will require us to make effective use of the talents and abilities of all our citizens, in work settings that bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

American colleges and universities traditionally have enjoyed significant latitude in fulfilling their missions. Americans have understood that there is no single model of a good college, and that no single standard can predict with certainty the lifetime contribution of a teacher or a student.

Yet, the freedom to determine who shall teach and be taught has been restricted in a number of places, and come under attack in others. As a result, some schools have experienced precipitous declines in the enrollment of African-American and Hispanic students, reversing decades of progress in the effort to assure that all groups in American society have an equal opportunity for access to higher education.

Achieving diversity on college campuses does not require quotas. Nor does diversity warrant admission of unqualified applicants. However, the diversity we seek, and the future of the nation, do require that colleges and universities continue to be able to reach out and make a conscious effort to build healthy and diverse learning environments appropriate for their missions. The success of higher education and the strength of our democracy depend on it.

The higher education community's statement, "On the Importance of Diversity in Education" has been endorsed by over 50 higher education associations and organizations. The statement, including a long list of endorsements, was published in the Washington Post (Feb. 9, 1998), The Chronicle of High Education (Feb. 13, 1998), Black Issues in Higher Education (Feb. 19, 1998), and the American Council on Education's newsletter, Higher Education & National Affairs (Feb. 23, 1998).

It's Time to Talk

Wouldn't it help if we as U.S. Americans got together in our communities and got to know each other across racial lines? That's what the Urban Enterprise Center of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce decided to encourage. In mid-1997, it organized the Forum on Race with a two-part strategy: invite people in the community to a series of meetings with nationally and internationally acclaimed speakers; and second, facilitate dinner parties in private homes where people from different backgrounds might meet, talk, and eat together. By setting in motion circles of conversation, the Center hopes that relationships will grow and ideas to get along and work together take root. To date over 800 people have shared their experience with race with others, including the most recent Community Dinner event that attracted over 130 people. This grassroots effort demonstrates an undercurrent in U.S. society that contradicts the anti-affirmative action, anti-diversity sentiments often expressed in the media. We know that similar efforts are taking place in other cities across the country. For information, call Susannah Ross (206) 389-7263.

What's New in Books

Conflict Resolution Across Cultures: From Talking It Out To Third Party Mediation by Selma Myers and Barbara Filner gives an overview of conflict resolution and mediation. The book offers examples of how differences in values, beliefs, and behaviors not only complicate conflicts, but in many cases are the source of misunderstandings that generate the conflict in the first place.

The book is about the everyday interplay that keeps neighbors at odds, school yards tense, and workplaces edgy. Myers and Filner offer solid advice on two dimensions of conflict: how we "talk it out" when we have to resolve a disagreement face-to-face with someone different from ourselves, and how to use a mediator effectively for resolving differences between two parties.

Early on the authors state that where issues are resolved in such a way that there are winners and losers, the stage is set for the next round of conflict. This is most of all what the world needs to avoid, whether that world consists of families, a city block, two people working side-by-side, or nation against nation.

Available from Amherst Educational Publishing 1-800-865-5549

Managing Diversity, April 1998