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HISTORY
OF THE CALIFORNIA FORUM FOR DIVERSITY IN GRADUATE EDUCATION
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The
California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education had its origins
in a series of meetings in 1990 among graduate deans and their staffs
from the University of California and California State University
systems. The focus of the meetings was on ways to enhance the recruitment
of minority students into doctoral programs. The UC representatives
wanted to attract more African American and Latino students, in particular,
into their Ph.D. programs. The CSU representatives wanted to assist
in creating a broader pool of new Ph.D. recipients that would enable
them to recruit future faculty as diverse as the student populations
they already served. |
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The
campuses that began these discussions called themselves the California
Consortium for Minority Graduate Education and experimented with a
number of different initiatives, including exchanges of information
about minority applicants. The one effort that proved immediately
successful and has been sustained ever since was the California Minority
Graduate Education Forum, first held at UCLA in 1991. The Forum was
developed to inform students from groups that had always been significantly
underrepresented in American higher education about the career opportunities
and academic challenges associated with advanced study in a wide range
of disciplines. It was designed to tap the growing pool of highly
qualified undergraduate and master's-level students already |
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attending California
colleges and universities. Previously, there had not been an adequate
mechanism to identify these students and encourage them to think
in terms of advanced study leading to the Ph.D. degree. To remedy
this situation the Forum brought together some of the most promising
underrepresented students from Southern California to acquaint them
with all aspects of graduate study in the natural sciences and engineering,
humanities and letters, social sciences, education, and health-related
fields. Professional degree programs (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy,
law, and MBA programs) were not included, both because they were
not engaged primarily in training future faculty and because had
their own recruiting networks.
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hundred students attended the first Forum, which received critical
funding support from the National Science Foundation and from several
technology-oriented corporations. Since then the Forum has undergone
several important changes. Independent colleges and universities
have joined the effort and, indeed, have hosted five of the annual
events, including both Forums scheduled for this year. The scope
of the effort has expanded to the point where the Forum annually
serves 2000 or more students. In the aftermath of Proposition 209,the
name of the event was also changed to the California Forum for
Diversity in Graduate Education. The purpose and direction have
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been altered, however. And with the 2003-2004 academic
year, the Consortium began holding two Forums annually, one in
Northern California and one in Southern California. By attracting
additional sponsors, the organizers are confident that the Forum
will only continue to improve each year.
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The Forums to date:
| APRIL
13, 1991 |
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES |
| APRIL
4, 1992 |
SAN
JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY |
| APRIL
3, 1993 |
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO |
| APRIL
9, 1994 |
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS |
| APRIL
22, 1995 |
CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH |
| APRIL
13, 1996 |
UNIVERSITY
OF THE PACIFIC |
| APRIL
12, 1997 |
CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN BERNARDINO |
| APRIL
18, 1998 |
UNIVERSITY
OF SAN FRANCISCO |
| APRIL
10, 1999 |
CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH |
| APRIL
8, 2000 |
STANFORD
UNIVERSITY |
| APRIL
21, 2001 |
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO |
| APRIL
13, 2002 |
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ |
| APRIL
5, 2003 |
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES |
| NOVEMBER 1, 2003 |
SAN
JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY |
| APRIL 3, 2004 |
CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERSITY, CHANNEL ISLANDS |
| OCTOBER 30, 2004 |
UNIVERSITY
OF THE PACIFIC |
| APRIL 9, 2005 |
UNIVERSITY
OF SAN DIEGO |
| OCTOBER 29, 2005 |
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO |
| APRIL 22, 2006 |
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA |
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