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Scholarship July 3, 2025

Diversity’s Promise for Higher Education: Making It Work

The Wabash Center

Author
Smith, Daryl G.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
ISBN
9780801893162
Table of Contents
Preface

Part I The Diversity Imperative

ch. 1 The National and Global Context for Diversity in Higher Education

ch. 2 The Role of Identity in Diversity

Part II Reframing Diversity

ch. 3 Diversity Framework for Higher Education: Inclusive and Differentiated

ch. 4 The Past Forty Years

Part III Building Capacity By Interrupting The Usual

ch. 5 Identifying Talent: The Faculty

ch. 6 Working With and Across Differences: Intergroup Relations and Identity

ch. 7 Student Learning and Success

Part IV What Will It Take?

ch. 8 Monitoring Progress on Diversity

ch. 9 Making Diversity Work: Recommendations and Conclusions

References

Index
Daryl G. Smith's career has been devoted to studying and fostering diversity in higher education. She has witnessed and encouraged the evolution of diversity from an issue addressed sporadically on college campuses to an imperative if institutions want to succeed. In Diversity's Promise for Higher Education, she analyzes how diversity is practiced today and offers new recommendations for effecting lasting and meaningful change.

Smith argues that in the next generation of work on diversity, student population mix and performance will no longer be acceptable indicators of an institution's diversity effectiveness. To become more relevant to society, the nation, and the world while remaining true to their core mission, institutions must begin to see diversity, like technology, as central to teaching and research. She proposes a set of practices that will help colleges and universities embrace diversity as a tool for institutional success.

This thoughtful volume draws on 40 years of diversity studies. It offers both researchers and administrators an innovative approach to developing and instituting effective and sustainable diversity strategies. (From the Publisher)