Princeton U. Approves Comprehensive Strategy to Increase Diversity

The Board of Trustees and President Christopher L. Eisgruber have unanimously endorsed a report by a special trustee committee that recommends a comprehensive strategy to increase the diversity and inclusivity of the Princeton University. 

The strategy will focus on graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and senior administrators. 

The report was issued by the 19-member Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity that included trustees, faculty, graduate students and staff.

"Princetonians have powerful reasons to care deeply about the diversity of the University community," Eisgruber said. "Only by drawing the best talent from every sector of society can we achieve the scholarly and educational excellence to which we aspire. Only by integrating multiple, divergent perspectives into our discussions can we realize a fully vibrant intellectual and residential life."

The report contains numerous recommendations for heads of academic and administrative departments to consider.  Underlying the recommendations are three critical themes:

• Departmental responsibility: Academic and administrative departments should have the freedom and responsibility to determine how to focus their efforts to achieve maximum impact
• Central support: The University must provide departments with resources to pursue diversity in ways that sustain or improve the quality of their programs
• University-wide accountability: University leaders need to monitor departmental efforts and provide regular progress reports.

"Our academic departments have the expertise to make the judgments about quality on which Princeton's excellence depends," Eisgruber said. "The committee's diversity strategy both respects and leverages this critical element of Princeton’s academic culture." 

Eisgruber said that he intends to launch the implementation of the proposed strategy at an upcoming meeting with the chairs of all the academic departments. 

The report commends a successful graduate recruiting program in the Department of Molecular Biology that rapidly increased the diversity of its doctoral program, and Eisgruber has asked Provost David Lee and Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin to solicit proposals from departments to conduct other pilot projects.  

The Graduate School is creating a Diversity Committee composed of students, faculty and staff and will work closely with departments on graduate student recruitment, retention and climate issues, and faculty collaboration with minority-serving institutions. The Office of Human Resources has begun working with administrative departments to develop a stronger overall staff diversity and inclusion strategy, with University Services and Campus Life commencing programs to pilot the proposed approaches.  

The work of the committee — established in January 2012 by now-President Emerita Shirley M. Tilghman — furthers the progress Princeton has made in fostering a community that welcomes people of every gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and other backgrounds.  

Full report and president's statement available online: www.princeton.edu/reports/2013/diversity)