Engage, Excite and Educate to Recruit and Retain Students of Color Cyndi Freeman Director Graduate Student Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives The Graduate School

2 “Everyone talks about the weather” We must change the discourse when we speak about diversity and inclusion. We must reframe it to have action. Graduate School

3 Historically, higher education and graduate education were viewed as a public good~~~~~now higher education and graduate education are viewed as PRIVATE good. Graduate School

4 A record number of Americans now hold bachelor’s degrees 33% The leaking pipeline begins before kindergarten, continues from K-12, throughout the undergraduate experience dumping into graduate education in an ever decreasing number of candidates. Bachelors Degrees People of color24% Masters Degrees African Americans9.3% Native Americans0.5% PhDs African Americans6.2% Native Americans0.6%

5 Students must do the work It is an individual experience Do your homework Do the work Connect with faculty Students actually make post-bac choices based on their perception of succeeding. Graduate School

6 You must engage, excite and educate students to shop at your “boutique.” If they do not know you exist, they are not likely to stumble into the program on their own. Graduate School

7 What does Diversity and Inclusion look like? Efforts for achieving faculty diversity must be directly connected to achieving diversity and inclusion in the undergraduate experiences: first year seminars, academic advising, mentoring, undergraduate experiences and developmental programming. Graduate School

8 What does Diversity and Inclusion look like? (cont) Inclusion is a psychological dimension Integrating diversity into institutional processes There must be an implicit connection between diversity and excellence in the academy. Graduate School

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