Each program class has 10 scholars—recruited from a national pool—who serve two-year appointments. The program has graduated 132 scholars. Of those, 24 now work for Carolina 17 hold appointments at other North Carolina universities. These graduates include: Barbara Williams, the first African American astrophysicist and an Associate Professor at the University of Delaware Juliette Bell, Provost and Vice Chancellor at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina and Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of History and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and regarded as one of the nation’s preeminent scholars in African American history. The program was championed by the late Phil Manire, Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Graduate School, who came up with the idea in response to a shortage of minority faculty in the 1980s. The concept was so good that it was endorsed in the university’s budget process and received funding from the North Carolina General Assembly. It was an innovative approach for one institution to take in addressing this continuing national problem. That takes me back to the university’s mission statement, which also says we will serve the nation, and we will “address, as appropriate, regional, national and international needs.” In North Carolina globalization is not an abstraction. Globalization has benefited the state in some ways, but has also caused very painful job losses, especially in furniture and textile manufacturing. IBM is a large local employer in the Research Triangle, with thousands of employees. Some are Carolina graduates some are the parents of Carolina students. Not that many years ago, when IBM announced it was sending a number of local jobs to India, people in the Triangle area of North Carolina took notice. It was another signal that global competition is not just about furniture, textiles, and the old underpinnings of our state’s economy. It’s also about services and high-tech work—the knowledge economy. How will our students compete in this economy? We think the richest marketplace of ideas results when we have a faculty and student body—and a library staff—characterized by great intellectual curiosity and aptitude—and also by diverse life experiences and backgrounds. Those are among the reasons that diversity matters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We recognize that our success depends on our RLI 263 4 Diversity in Research Universities ( C O N T I N U E D ) APRIL 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC
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