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CHANCELLOR ROBERT C. DYNES
CALIFORNIA FORUM FOR
DIVERSITY IN GRADUATE EDUCATION
APRIL 21, 2001
- On behalf
of our students, faculty and staff, it gives me great pleasure to welcome
you to the UCSD campus.
- I am delighted
that the California Forum on Diversity in Graduate Education chose San
Diego and UCSD for its 11th annual meeting.
- We consider
it a privilege to play host to this distinguished and diverse group
of scholars.
- And we
are secretly hoping you’ll be so impressed with this place that
we can lure you back for graduate studies.
- Here at
UCSD, I wear three hats: Professor of Physics; Chancellor; and Chief
Diversity Officer.
- In that
third very important role, I convened a UCSD Town Hall Meeting on April
3 to discuss cultural diversity as a campuswide responsibility.
- The keynote
speaker was Dr. Daryl Smith from The Claremont Graduate University.
Many of you may know Dr. Smith as a national expert on diversity in
higher education.
- Her talk
was truly outstanding. One message in particular will resonate with
all of us here today. It had to do with diversity in graduate education.
- Dr. Smith
said graduate education is too often seen as the elite end of the educational
pipeline. She urged us to consider that graduate education should be
the beginning of the pipeline.
- That advice
is especially valuable as we strive to boost graduate education and
expand future ranks of educators and researchers.
- Between
now and 2010, California’s population growth will require our colleges
and universities to enroll more students than envisioned in the Master
Plan for Higher Education.
- Here at
UCSD, our student population will grow by 10,000 students – that’s
half our current size – in this decade.
- To accommodate
that growth, we will add about 450 faculty and 2,000 researchers. Those
additions will give us an unprecedented opportunity to build a more
diverse faculty.
- A more
diverse faculty will better reflect the rich pluralism of California.
Our students will be better educated and better prepared for leadership
roles in our multicultural society.
- When I
look out at all of you, I feel confident that we will give our students
the diverse educational experience they need and deserve.
- I congratulate
you for being invited to this forum. I hope you enjoy your stay at UCSD.
And I wish you the very best of luck in your university careers.
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