Scholars from Mellon Research Forum convene for first time at UCI School of Education
Leading scholars from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Mellon Research Forum met at the UCI School of Education on January 31 to share progress on their projects, discuss potential collaborations, and highlight ways to achieve advances related to diversity and inclusive excellence on campuses across the nation.
“It was a tremendous honor to host this group,” said Richard Arum, dean and professor, UCI School of Education. “Collectively, we’re exploring ways to provide universities and colleges the tools to improve their undergraduate experiences, particularly with respect to inclusive excellence.”
In 2017, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched its Mellon Research Forum. The forum supports new qualitative and quantitative research into the outcomes of a liberal arts education for students and society, including impacts on economic wellbeing, cognitive and psychosocial development, physical and mental health, and civic and political participation.
“It was a tremendous honor to host this group,” said Richard Arum, dean and professor, UCI School of Education. “Collectively, we’re exploring ways to provide universities and colleges the tools to improve their undergraduate experiences, particularly with respect to inclusive excellence.”
In 2017, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched its Mellon Research Forum. The forum supports new qualitative and quantitative research into the outcomes of a liberal arts education for students and society, including impacts on economic wellbeing, cognitive and psychosocial development, physical and mental health, and civic and political participation.
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The convening at UCI marked the first meeting of the principal investigators whose grants are funded by the Mellon Research Forum initiative.
Arum is principal investigator on The Next Generation Undergraduate Success Measurement Project, a grant supported by the Mellon Research Forum. The longitudinal study is following more than 1,000 UCI undergraduates over the course of two years, in order to provide insight into the value of college, and to create tools that other universities can utilize to better understand their own students. For more information, please click here. “This study is leading the conversation on how to better serve undergraduate students, and how leadership can think of institutional improvements that are driven by data and measurement,” Arum said. “We think every university in the nation should be doing this work.” Douglas M. Haynes, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UCI, welcomed the scholars to UCI during a dinner the previous night. In his remarks, Haynes called inclusive excellence “The 21st century imperative for our nation’s universities and colleges.” |
Richard Arum, dean and professor, UCI School of Education, speaks to UCI undergraduates at the launch of The Next Generation Undergraduate Success Measurement Project, September 2019.
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“More so than the meritocratic model of the 19th century university, the inclusive excellent university or college intentionally seeks to collectivize the culminated cultural and social capital of the university and, in turn, make the value of the liberal arts available in more immediate and long-term ways for our students, their families, and communities – this is not an asymmetrical relationship, but a dialogic one,” Haynes said. “It is simply not enough to admit diverse students. We must create and sustain an inclusive excellence ecosystem for them to maximize their potential, spanning across the educational milestone – kindergarten through 16th grade and beyond.”
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The Mellon Research Forum is so important in not only exploring who are our students, but in providing universities and colleges and their faculties with the tools to improve how we mediate the liberal arts through a variety of pedagogical spaces, practices and interventions.
- Douglas M. Haynes, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCI /
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Individuals from seven universities and one nonprofit whose grants are supported by the Mellon Research Forum presented during the meeting, including:
James Pawelski, Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, presented research similar to projects undertaken in the Mellon Research Forum, though not officially a part of the Forum.
For a full list of grants funded by the Mellon Research Forum, please click here.
- Richard Arum; Dean and Professor of Sociology and Education, University of California, Irvine
- Peter Bearman; Director, Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE); Jonathan R. Cole Professor of Sociology, Columbia University (with Wendy Fischman)
- Paul Courant; Edward M. Gramlich Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Public Policy; Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, University of Michigan
- William Damon; Professor of Education, Stanford University; Director, Stanford Center on Adolescence; Senior Fellow, by courtesy, Hoover Institution (with Heather Malin)
- Howard Gardner; The John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University
- David Theo Goldberg; Professor, Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine; Director, UC Humanities Research Institute
- Diana Hess; Dean and Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair of Education, University of Wisconsin
- Catharine Bond Hill; Managing Director, Ithaka S+R (with Martin Kurzweil and Daniel Rossman)
- Alan Liu; Distinguished Professor, Department of English, University of California, Santa Barbara
James Pawelski, Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, presented research similar to projects undertaken in the Mellon Research Forum, though not officially a part of the Forum.
For a full list of grants funded by the Mellon Research Forum, please click here.
