Participation in SREB Compact for Faculty Diversity
The Southern Regional Education Board works with 16 member states to improve public education at every level, from pre - K through Ph.D. SREB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Atlanta. Member states are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. SREB’s work is funded by member appropriations and by grants and contracts from foundations and local, state and federal agencies. One of the programs of SREB is the Doctoral Scholars program whose focus is on increasing faculty diversity.
More than one - third of America's college students are people of color. But the percentages of college and university faculty who are members of racial/ethnic minority groups are only small fractions of the total. Nationwide, about 5 percent of faculty are African - American, about 3 percent are Hispanic and about 1 percent are Native American. The SREB - State Doctoral Scholars Program is working to change that.
The program is part of a nationwide initiative, the Compact for Faculty Diversity, to produce more minority Ph.D.s and encourage them to seek faculty positions. The Institute for Teaching and Mentoring was held October 30 - November1 in Arlington. Office personnel were able to meet with 1100 scholars who are in the job search for faculty positions. Dr. V ictoria Foster, School of Educatio n and her mentee, Richelle Joe (SOE Doctoral Student ) also participated in the event.
This was William & Mary’s first year of participation, but definitely not the last. The goal is to assist academic departments with increasing their applicant pools for faculty positions. Please visit the SREB website for more information on the program.
(Information for this article was taken from the SREB website.)
