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Smith Announces New Diversity Initiatives Significant new initiatives that will assist Smith College in expanding its efforts in the recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty and student body were announced today by Ruth Simmons, president of Smith. Last December, Smith was awarded one of five $150,000 leadership grants given in 1996 by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to be used at the discretion of the presidents of the colleges that received the grant. In awarding the grants, the Knight Foundation noted that private, liberal arts colleges "are the cornerstone of our system of higher education." However, as Simmons noted today, "the important role that these colleges have played in the system of higher education has been diminished by their relative inability to recruit and retain a diverse faculty and student body. Faculty and students who bring to the campus a wide range of perspectives and life experiences enrich an intellectual community." Simmons has announced that she will allocate the Knight funds for the following purposes: to add a full-time staff member, for a period of two years, to the college's office of institutional diversity who will help develop outreach programs aimed at connecting Smith with institutions that serve historically underrepresented students. This person also will help to expand the college's already established relationships with the Young Women's Leadership School in Harlem, the Springfield school system and several community colleges and will also have responsibility for creating new recruitment relationships with community organizations, church groups and social service agencies. to provide funding for the expansion of the Smith Summer Science Program that will allow it to enroll more minority girls, including students from the Young Women's Leadership School and students nominated by local community organizations. Currently, about 70 young women from around the world enroll in the science program each summer for a four-week residential experience that focuses on science research with Smith faculty members. to support visiting faculty who will teach additional courses in ethnic studies, with emphasis on Asian American studies and Latino studies, and in gay and lesbian studies. and to add funds to the budget of the Ada Comstock Scholars' Program, that will support work on projects aimed at enlarging the pool of minority applicants for that program, which serves students of non-traditional ages. "I believe these initiatives offer promise for helping the Smith community achieve the diversity it seeks," Simmons said today.

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