WASHINGTON – While the higher education landscape for diversity initiatives is fraught with legal pitfalls, institutional leaders can still develop exemplary programs that increase minority participation in STEM fields without running afoul of the law.
That is the crux of a new report released this week by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, and EducationCounsel LLC titled “The Smart Grid for Institutions of Higher Education and the Students They Serve: Developing and Using Collaborative Agreements to Bring More Students into STEM.”
As its name suggests, the report draws an analogy between efforts to enhance the nation’s electric power grid and what is envisaged in the report as “the Smart Grid for institutions of higher education.”
The report highlights dozens of programs at colleges and universities throughout the nation that boost minority participation in STEM programs in ways that are considered race, ethnic and gender neutral.
“We’re not writing on a blank slate. That’s the really good news,” Arthur Coleman, managing partner at EducationCounsel LLC, which has provided policy, legal and overall support for the AAAS Diversity and Law Project, said during a panel discussion Monday to release this report.
“This is what qualifies as race, ethnic or gender neutral, even though it has a particular focus on underrepresented minorities,” Coleman said of the programs featured in the report.
With a special focus on the legal framework for diversity, the report is meant to serve as a “bridge” between legal counsels at colleges and universities and institutional leaders in order to enable both groups to find legal ways to broaden participation in STEM programs and other fields, said Dr. Daryl E. Chubin, director of the Center for Advancing Science & Engineering Capacity at AAAS.
