ANN ARBOR—What role does diversity have in higher education? What role should it have? What evidence supports the underlying assumptions of these questions?

These and related issues will be the focus of a panel discussion, “Race Relations and Education: Research on Equity and Opportunity,” Wednesday (Jan. 26) at 4 p.m. in the University of Michigan Rackham Amphitheater.

The panel is composed of three researchers who contributed to a new book, “Compelling Interests: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Colleges and Universities” (forthcoming, Stanford University Press), aimed at increasing understanding of the importance of affirmative action in college admissions.

The panel members are William Trent, professor of education and associate chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jeff Milem, assistant professor of education, University of Maryland, and Shana Levin assistant professor of psychology, Claremont-McKenna College. Sylvia Hurtado, professor of education, U-M, will moderate the discussion. (Information about the research, and a draft of the book itself, can be found at http://www.stanford.edu/~hakuta/RaceInHigherEducation.html.)

Levin will discuss how, in her research, using substitutes for race, such as economic indicators, are unable to address current disparities that were historically created by race and racial practices because racism, intentional or not, continues to exist on an individual, institutional and societal level.

Milem will address the questions faced by universities, and the communities into which they send their students, in determining their diversity policies. For example, to what extent can students receive a meaningful education that prepares them to participate in an increasingly diverse society if the student body and faculty are not diverse? And to what extent will universities be able to address the issues that are central to a diverse society if they do not have adequate representation of that diversity?

Trent will place affirmative action policies in a historical context by examining past and current inequities in access and opportunities for different racial and ethnic groups. Using the metaphor of the education pipeline, his research examines this evidence in the areas of K-12 schooling, employment and access to higher education.

For more information about this event and Dialogues on Diversity, contact Bess Chuang ([email protected]) at 615-1291 or visit www.dialogues.umich.edu.

panel discussionWilliam Trent[email protected]