Three university presidents talk about recruiting and retaining diverse populations as well as the diversity challenges that remain at their respective institutions.

The City College of New York is one of the most diverse campuses in the country — approximately 90 foreign languages are spoken on campus. Educating recent high school graduates to working adults, CCNY also ranks among the leading schools conferring bachelor’s degrees to African-Americans. The University of Maryland, College Park, celebrated the fact that African-American students earned 40 doctorates this year, the largest number in the school’s history. In addition, over the past three years 46 percent of faculty hires have been women and 34 percent to minorities. And the University of Virginia, long recognized as a leader in educating minority students, tied Columbia University among top-rated universities this year for enrolling the highest percentage of African-American students, at 11.4 percent, and the university also announced this spring that for the 14th straight year, its African-American students posted the highest graduation rate, 83 percent, among those at all flagship state universities.

There are, of course, additional accomplishments that each of these universities could list, and other equally impressive universities to profile, but in this edition Diverse speaks with presidents Dr. John T. Casteen of the University of Virginia, Dr. C.D. Mote Jr. of the University of Maryland, College Park, and Dr. Gregory H. Williams of The City College of New York about improving diversity within the faculty ranks and the student body.

Dr. John T. Casteen, President, University of Virginia

DI: Since UVA is recognized as a leader in educating and graduating minority students, how do you explain the value of a diverse campus community?

JC: I spend a lot of my life in front of alumni, donors, political leaders, our students and their families. In these circles, people get it. This is a public university. People who have followed our development over the years know that we take our public mandate seriously and we have large ambitions for the university and for its people. The university’s minority members’ contributions and impact, here and in the world generally, and their successes are well known. We publicize them. In raising money, making our case to state government, and planning for the university’s future, we put these issues out in front, right alongside our origins in Thomas Jefferson’s thinking about freedom in America, our ambitions for the university’s academic future, and the community’s convictions about personal and public ethics, including the honor system.