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'A New Cornell Model'

MOSAIC CONFERENCE CELEBRATES DIVERSITY

iT MAY WELL HAVE BEEN THE most impressive assemblage ever of Cornellians of color.

There at lunch, greeting students and offering nearly a halfcentury of insight, was Harry Edwards '62, retired chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. And there, doing double duty on workshop panels, was Ted Teng '79, until recently president and COO ofWyndham International. That was Mario Baeza '71 onstage opening the program on Friday night and working the halls on Saturday; he's chairman of TCW/ Latin American Partners and founder of the Baeza Group, an alternative investment firm. Attorney Londell McMillan '87, who has represented Prince and Stevie Wonder, held forth on the entertainment business; Miguel Ferrer '59, MBA '61, president of UBS PaineWebber Inc. of Puerto Rico, gave advice on personal finance; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheryl WuDunn '81 explained what it means to be a Cornell trustee. Kimberlé Crenshaw '81, law professor and architect of critical race theory, helped to inaugurate the new Africana Studies and Research Center on Friday and was still there on Sunday asking questions about minority admissions. And second-generation trustee Joe Holland '78, MA '79, who worked in vain to get Cornell to divest from South Africa in the 1980s, sent us off with heartfelt words about why we should care about this place.

We got it. All of us were there for at least one of the reasons Holland delineated, from making professional contacts to making sure Cornell is responsive to future generations of students of color. But whatever the reason for our attendance, the amazing thing about that weekend was simply that we were there, representing the splendid variety of endeavors we like to point out when we talk about Cornell grads making a difference in the world. And also, in this case, seeking to make a difference at our alma mater.

It was all part of the groundbreaking conference “Cornell Mosaic: Celebrating Diversity and Advancing Inclusion,” held on the Ithaca campus from April 29 to May 1. It grew from the work of the Minority Alumni Initiatives Implementation Committee of the Board of Trustees, chaired by Elizabeth Moore '75. Drawing on feedback from minority alumni focus groups around the country, MAIIC developed a plan for an event that would attract African-American, Asian Pacific American, Latino, and Native American alumni back to campus to connect them with students and recruit them as alumni leaders.

President Jeffrey Lehman '77 signed on early in support of the conference and delivered a thought-ful keynote address, referencing his experience with the Grutter affirmative-action case in Michigan. Deniqua Crichlow '99 and Mary Berens '74 of Alumni Affairs did the heavy lifting in support of a planning committee of alumni (myself included) who in turn reached out to other volunteers for marketing and programming. Robert Harris, the vice provost for diversity and faculty development, ensured that a solid mix of professors, professional staff, and alumni would make presentations.

That broad cooperation yielded attendance of almost 600, easily exceeding expectations. Significantly, nearly half the registrants were students, who had ample opportunities through formal sessions, meals, and casual interactions to compare notes with us old-schoolers. For me, that came to pass most memorably in the hour or so I got to spend hanging out in the lobby of Ujamaa, where I once lived, talking not only to current students but to young alumni who had been my students when I was on campus teaching and running the Prefreshman Summer Program.

The Africana Center dedication, the tenth anniversary celebration of the Latino Living Center, and the awarding of the Perkins Prize for Interracial Harmony and Understanding on Friday helped to swell the ranks. Taken together, the events of the weekend created a new Cornell model for reaching out to alumni, set a new standard for discussing issues of diversity, and generated a new reason for returning to Ithaca--which is just what many of us vowed to do when Mosaic II comes around.

--Dennis Williams '73

DENNIS WILLIAMS is associate dean of students and director of the Center for Minority Educational Affairs at Georgetown University.

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