Oglethorpe University was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of an effort to increase diversity among its majority White faculty.
Currently, 82 percent of Oglethorpe’s faculty is White, 8 percent is Asian, 6 percent is Black and 3 percent is Hispanic. In comparison, the student body is 38 percent White, 24 percent Black, 11 percent Hispanic and the remaining identify as multiracial or no identifier, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
According to Dr. Glenn R. Sharfman, the Atlanta school’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, the goal is to have the university’s faculty “better reflect [the] students.”
The university will recruit possible candidates through advertisements placed in diverse higher education publications.
