CHEPA completed the Enhancing Diversity at USC project in Spring of 2004. This site remains available as the project archive.

After an earlier ten-year review of an initiative to enhance campus-based diversity initiatives, The James Irvine Foundation launched a project to strengthen evaluation efforts of campus-based diversity initiatives. Starting in July 2001, The Irvine Foundation funded activities of the newly established Center for American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. The goals of the Center included enhancing the climate for diversity at USC by maintaining and/or increasing the representation of African American and Hispanic populations on campus, and creating a climate where issues of diversity are inextricably intertwined with our concern for academic excellence. The purpose of this study was:

• To increase the pool of graduate students of color who will go on to assume faculty positions 
• To enhance the climate for faculty of color and other interested individuals on campus to engage in sustained intellectual dialogues 
• To enhance discussions of diversity on campus 

Through the Center we considered how a focus on graduate students of color enabled us to improve our work with underrepresented students, improve the current work conditions for faculty of color, and increase the university's understanding of diversity in general.

For more information on this study, please contact Dean Campbell and William G. Tierney at: