Historically Black University Opens Office of Diversity

The nation’s highest-ranked colleges and universities all have established programs to increase racial and ethnic diversity on campus. Some of these efforts are tokens designed to deflect criticism of poor performance in this area. But many of these efforts are well funded and go to great lengths to achieve their stated goals.

Now, in a surprise to many readers, the administration at Fort Valley State University, a historically black educational institution in Georgia, has established an Office of Diversity and International Affairs. At the present time about 95 percent of the student body at the university is African American.

The goal of the new office is not only to recruit students of other races and ethnic groups but to increase foreign enrollments and to seek out nontraditional students, such as working mothers and seniors.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.