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PLENTY TO TALK ABOUT: The weekend
included everything from informal chats (Mae Jemison,
’77, and V. Joy Simmons, ’74, above)
to a panel of Stanford's three most recent presidents
(Kennedy, Hennessy and Casper, below).
Lauren Black |
huge hugs and the occasional
tear. Remembered moments from the 1970s, and questions
about student life today.
All were evident as more than 700 of the University’s
22,000 alumni of color gathered in MemAud on the April
30 weekend for three days of catching up and looking
forward. “Community, Diversity, and Excellence:
Celebrating Stanford’s Minority Alumni”
was a first-of-its-kind conference.
Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, ’74,
ma ’75, noted the historic nature of the conference
as he opened the first session. “Let’s use
this weekend to challenge the University to do more
as we go forward,” he said.
As chair of the Board of Trustees Task Force on Minority
Alumni Relations, Ogletree supervised the report that
was the centerpiece of formal presentations and of many
overheard conversations. Among the findings: minority
students make up almost half of the University’s
undergraduate population, but less than 15 percent of
tenure-line faculty are members of minority groups.
There has been a “slow and unsteady growth of
minority graduate students.”
University administrators and faculty addressed compelling
issues in their presentations—mixed-race identities,
stereotyping, student activism, linguistic profiling—but
none drew more comment than admissions policies. Speaking
about the University’s success in attracting undergraduate
minority students, dean of admission and financial aid
Robin Mamlet said her office “openly practiced”
affirmative action. She explained that 20 readers look
over more than 19,000 applications each year, weighing
issues that include race, socioeconomic status and whether
a student is the first family member to go to college.
“It’s a fundamentally gray and fundamentally
value-laden process,” Mamlet said. “But
it’s as good a process as we can achieve.”
Several parents implored Mamlet to continue giving
special attention to children of alumni. “It’s
our turn,” one mother of four said. “Don’t
get rid of legacies, because it’s our children
now,” another added. Mamlet assured listeners
that legacies still “receive very careful notice.”
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Matt Sayles/News Service |
University President John Hennessy and his two immediate
predecessors, Gerhard Casper and Donald Kennedy, took
the stage to talk about how student activism had helped
diversify the campus. When they opened the floor to
comments and questions, a woman who graduated with a
degree in environmental engineering in 1991 tearfully
recalled her time on the Farm: “It took years
to feel I belonged as a Chicana.” Another Latina
graduate of the Class of 1996, who lives
in El Paso, Texas, told of her efforts to revitalize
a local alumni group. She encountered some “resentful”
Caucasian graduates of the 1950s and ’60s. “They
say because we got in, their children didn’t.”
Kennedy replied that he had talked with alumni groups
who voiced similar feelings, and said that “nobody
can make it go away.” Some older alums, he added,
“are worried about their kids getting in, and
worried about the University changing in ways they don’t
comprehend.”
Faculty of color presented glimpses of their research
throughout the three days, and they weighed in on the
issues of recruitment and retention. History professor
Al Camarillo noted that the School of Humanities and
Sciences made an “unprecedented” number
of offers this year to members of minority groups. “President,
provost, deans—we all must double the effort to
make our faculty more diverse.”
Conference participants also took time out to mingle
with students and enjoy mariachi concerts, drumming
exhibitions, and performances by Ballet Folklorico de
Stanford and the Stanford Gospel Choir. Said one graduate
from 1975, “It's not the last conference we need
of this type.” |
