ARLINGTON, Va. — A panel of senior professors and researchers told attendees at the largest annual gathering of U.S. minority graduate school students that earning their Ph.D.s and becoming faculty will help make them effective advocates for expanding the educational pipeline of students of color seeking higher education.
During the session, “The Need to Examine and Address the Current Status of Minority Males in Higher Education,” at the Compact for Faculty Diversity’s 16th Annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring on Friday, panelists urged students to channel their eventual Ph.D. success into becoming role models and advocates for programs that could boost the numbers of young minority males completing college and graduate school. The Compact for Faculty Diversity, a national partnership of regional, federal and foundation programs that focus on minority graduate education and faculty diversity, held the annual institute in Arlington, Va., this past weekend.
“The first thing you have to do is be successful. Take care of yourself first. Get yourself situated,” said Dr. Henry T. Frierson, associate vice president and dean of the graduate school at the University of Florida.
During his presentation, Dr. Ronald D. Henderson, director of research at the National Education Association, unveiled data showing minority men have failed to keep pace with minority women in enrolling as well as completing undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs over the past three decades. African-American and Hispanic women have dramatically increased their participation throughout U.S. higher education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, according to Henderson.
