CONWAY, Ark. (January 9, 2017) – Hendrix College has been awarded
a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, to be expended
over approximately three years, to
support the College’s diversity and inclusion efforts.
Those efforts include introducing inclusive pedagogies,
diversifying the curriculum, and developing engaged learning experiences in
diverse and multicultural settings for students.
The Mellon grant will provide new support to recruit and
retain a more diverse faculty.
The grant will also enhance academic support services for
Hendrix Aspire Scholarship recipients, which covers the full cost of attendance
for Pell Grant-eligible students from partner institutions and organizations.
Fifty percent of Aspire Scholars are underrepresented minorities, and 36
percent are first-generation college students.
With the grant’s support, a new Office of Community
Partnerships will expand partnerships and internship opportunities for
community-based learning in diverse and multicultural settings, including the
Arkansas Delta.
A new Minority Alumni Network will connect minority alumni to
academic life on campus by inviting them to be guest speakers, lecturers, and
performers, and inspiring them to provide new internship, service learning, and
research opportunities to current Hendrix students.
Other items
supported by the Mellon grant include:
- Departmental
initiative grants to allow each academic department to identify and address
discipline-specific challenges related to diversity and inclusion.
- Faculty
course development grants for new course development or the revision of
existing courses supportive of inclusive content and pedagogy.
- Faculty
development events and workshops focused on inclusive pedagogy.
“Increasing the diversity and inclusiveness of our community
at every level is one of our highest priorities,” said Hendrix President Bill
Tsutsui. “We are so grateful to the Mellon Foundation for recognizing this
critical need and supporting our work to make Hendrix more welcoming to all.”
The Mellon grant follows the growing diversity of the Hendrix
student body. Currently, overall minority student enrollment is 19.7 percent.
Minority student enrollment for the class entering in fall 2016 was 22.2
percent; 32 percent of new students are Pell-eligible and 16 percent are
first-generation college students.
The Mellon grant also follows several recent steps to
increase diversity and inclusion at Hendrix, Tsutsui added.
In 2016, Hendrix alumna and education professor Dr. Dionne B. Jackson '96 became
the College’s first Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity
and Inclusion. She is the first diversity officer in the Associated Colleges of
the South, the academic consortium to which Hendrix belongs, to report directly
to the President.
This fall, Hendrix College Board of Trustees formally
approved a Statement
on Diversity and created a new Diversity and Inclusion
Committee.
Diversity and inclusion are also represented in the Statement
of Purpose and Vision
for Student Learning.
Prior to the grant for diversity
and inclusion, Hendrix received support from the Mellon Foundation for a
variety of initiatives, including studying the writing program, designing The
Engaged Citizen course for freshmen, educational technology, and support for
interdisciplinary course development.
About
Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway,
Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since
1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges
That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is
nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for
academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.