Pomona Escapes Irvine Grant Controversy
By Conor O'Rourke
News Associate

In the summer of 2002, Pomona received a grant of $850,000 to enhance its diversity from James Irvine Foundation. The foundation is a private, nonprofit grant-making organization dedicated to enriching the social, economic, and physical quality of life throughout California. Unlike the $750,000 Irvine Grant received by CMC last month, Pomona's grant is neither controversial nor is it accused of being affirmative action.

"We are not using it to hire anyone, so it is not affirmative action," stated Associate Dean Shahriar Shahriari, chairman of the steering committee in charge of allocating the grant's funds. Whereas CMC will use its grant money over a three year period to create five new faculty positions to be filled by non-white candidates-a move strongly resisted by many CMC professors, Pomona seeks instead to expand existing programs that enhance diversity while also improving the campus environment for all students. "CMC and Pomona are in very different positions right now. We don't have numerical goals in mind. Instead, we seek to be in a position where we can accomplish our goals better," said Shahriari of the grant process.

Shahriari describes the Irvine Grant has having three goals: enhancing campus climate, setting up an institutional research office, and broadening Pomona's community oureach.

The grant's goal of improving campus climate is intended to expand the already strong link between students and faculty. "The student-faculty experience is rated very highly here. We would like to build on this strength and see that it is shared by as many students as possible," said Shahriari.

The Irvine Grant will award five Distinguised Faculty Fellowships each year to faculty who promote diversity outside the classroom. "This can be done by mentoring, advising, sitting in on panels, extra-curriculars, things that say what to the rest of the world what it is Pomona values," said Shahriari.

The grant will also strengthen student-faculty interaction by creating five new Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) grants to be filled by members of certain targeted groups. These groups are defined as those underrepresented on college campuses, the economically disadvantaged, and first generation college students.

Finally, the grant will seek to improve campus climate by allocating funds, through the Dean of Students' Office, to be used for student programming discussing diversity, race, and related issues. This will include the continued support of the Power Dynamics Awareness Committee, a group targeted largely towards incoming freshmen and meant to provide a safe environment for the discussion of diversity issues.

The second goal is to create an Office of Institutional Research. This newly created office already employs two full-time staff members who organize and formalize existing data in order to create a structure through which to address and evaluate any program. "Traditionally Pomona doesn't pay a lot of attention to how to evaluate a program. There is a lot of us saying things but no one usually knows if its true. We need data, we need to base our discussions on evidence," said Shahriari. Essentially, the office will compile all the information gathered from student and faculty surveys in order to figure out what questions need to be addressed and how to go about addressing them.

The third goal is outreach, initially to the Southern California area, and eventually on a national scale. This will be done by expanding the Office of Community Relations by and creating a Summer Academic Enrichment Program for high school students. This program will invite high school sophomores and juniors from the Southern California area to attend academic and creative workshops in the summer taught by Pomona students and staff. "It is our hope that this program will increase not only the visibility of Pomona but also increase student awareness of liberal arts colleges and let those targeted groups know that a school like Pomona is available to them," said Shahriari.

Unlike usual grants, the Irvine Grant seeks out those whom they want to fund and invites them to apply. After Pomona received its invitation and was granted the money, a group of students, faculty, and administrators worked with representatives from the Irvine Foundation to evaluate ways in which Pomona could increase campus diversity and also to define what diversity is. "In the context of this grant, diversity is increased presence of the targeted groups," said Shahriari, referring again to the underrepresented, the economically disadvantaged, and first generation college students. Shahriari went on to describe Pomona as having a very diverse faculty, citing Pomona's 22 percent non-white faculty ratio. However he added, "We can never be satisfied. We must always be providing opportunities for as many students and faculty as possible."