Sponsored by the Diversity Policy Institute, the Diversity Associates Program is designed to increase awareness and knowledge of diversity-related scholarship and to integrate such issues into the curriculum. The program just completed its first year.

Persons selected for the program include: Jerrell C. Cassady, educational psychology; Anthony O. Edmonds, history; Brian Sinclair and Pamela Harwood, architecture; Victoria Keetay, speech pathology and audiology; Eric Lassiter, anthropology; Kecia McBride, Lauren Onkey and Robert Nowastski, English; Melinda Messineo, sociology; Sally A. Meyers, art; Thalia M. Mulvihill, educational studies; Marilyn Ryan and Kay Hodson Carlton, nursing; and Walter S. Smith, biology.

Projects focus on a wide variety of issues, including meeting the educational needs of diverse students, improving the academic environment for diverse students, internationalizing the curriculum, integrating diversity into academic programs, and creating electronic linkages to enhance exposure to diverse cultures.

In the fall participants will attend the workshop, "Making Diversity Matter in Higher Education," and develop a detailed timeline for their individual projects. During the academic year, participants will have the opportunity to attend a diversity-related conference, network with others with similar interests, and develop and disseminate the products of their projects.

The program?s first year was extremely successful, said Michael R. Stevenson, director of the Diversity Policy Institute. "The participants had a dramatic impact on the curriculum at Ball State and developed a professional network that will continue to grow long into the future," he said. "The proposals submitted this year were just as strong. In this group there is much more emphasis on international and global perspectives, greater interest in programmatic change, and greater concern for curricular reform at the graduate level."

The Diversity Associates Program is funded through grants from the George and Frances Ball Fund for Academic Excellence and the International Programs Endowment Fund.

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager

(NOTE TO EDITORS: More information about the Diversity Policy Institute may be found online at www.bsu.edu/provost/dpi. Stevenson may be reached at mstevens@bsu.eduor (765) 285-8980.)