Supporting Student Success At All Levels: The Center for Graduate and Professional Diversity Initiatives
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
This year marks the second year of our Strategic Plan implementation—a plan that guides and strengthens our university as a thriving public research institution.
The plan establishes lofty goals as we seek to prepare our students for lives of meaning and purpose. To that end, we’ve developed a renewed and energized focus on student success at all levels: undergraduate, professional, and graduate.
With respect to graduate education specifically, we are called to "improve climate, inclusion, and diversity in graduate education, in coordination with institutional diversity and inclusivity efforts."
Guided by this goal, last semester, the Center for Graduate and Professional Diversity Initiatives (CGD) expanded its mission to support the recruitment and retention of students of color from all graduate and professional programs. As part of this expansion, last week the CGD opened an additional campus location in the lower level of the Gillis Building. Faculty, staff, and students gathered together to celebrate its opening.
The CGD conducts extremely important work on our campus. Its signature programs and initiatives include:
- Faculty and Students of Color Mentoring Mixer
- Graduate Diversity Organizations Collective
- Graduate Students of Color Professional Development Colloquium
- TGIF (Thank Goodness It’s Friday)
- Feast Before Finals
By expanding the mission of the CGD and better publicizing its programs, we are—together—continuing our work to support an inclusive campus that provides a sense of belonging for all members of our community.
For more details about all of these programs, view CGD's spring calendar. For more information about CGD, visit their website.
Timothy S. Tracy
@UKYProvost
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