The Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Schools has hired Cheryl Burgan Evans as the director of graduate student diversity programs, a new position in the administration.
Provost Gene Block, a member of the group who interviewed Evans for the position in February, explained that the decision to hire Evans is part of a broader University goal to expand the diversity of its student body.
"She was hired in response to a recognized need of continuing the effort to diversify the student body," Block said, adding that the University needs "more aggressiveness in this issue."
Block said Evans will play a key role in designing a diverse portfolio of prospective students.
"If you want to have a diverse graduate student body, you have to identify techniques for reaching students from diverse backgrounds," Block said. Evans "will help us identify these techniques."
Evans also emphasized the importance of building a diverse student pool.
"I will be recruiting students from underrepresented minorities," Evans said. "The pool will have a lot more diversity."
Ariel Gomez, vice president for research and graduate studies, said Evans's appointment was the outcome of a national search and that Evans was an "outstanding" candidate.
Gomez added that the desired target of a diverse student body will not be fulfilled by imposing quotas for minority students, concluding that diversity and academic excellence can be two compatible features of a higher-education institution.
"We do not have quotas," Gomez said. "We focus on quality and excellence and we do want excellent students from all kinds of backgrounds."
One of Evans's first tasks will be to address the need for more black students --a group which she described as "very competitive." Evans will also focus on increasing the Latino population within the student body.
Gomez pointed out that the graduate program has seen improvements in diversity over the past few years, citing that the Asian-American population in the Ph.D. program increased from 129 to 181 in the 2000-2004 period, while the Hispanic-American population increased from 57 to 84 over the same period.
Evans will officially take office June 25.
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