Meanwhile, Pigford says reaction and support from colleagues and USC's administration are heartening. In addition to the engineering school and athletics department, departments within the College of Liberal Arts -- and possibly other public colleges -- have indicated an interest in contributing toward the stipend pool.
Pigford says she has an agreement to work with the Compact for Faculty Diversity, an organization in Atlanta that recruits and assists minorities in finding universities where they can do doctoral work.
Ansley Abraham, the compact's director, says, "We think it's a natural marriage between what she is trying to do and what we are trying to do."
The compact organizers annual seminars for roughly 250 minority graduate students where colleges and universities can send faculty recruiters to meet the next generation of professors. Abraham says USC is welcome to participate in those sessions.
Overton said last fall that Pigford's efforts are important because "it's not just about having bodies in the classroom. It's about having people bring in diverse points of view and showing young people there are many different ways to look at the world."
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