FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 17, 1996
Terry Colvin (510) 987-9152
Terry.Colvin@ucop.edu

UC AWARDED $1 MILLION TO PROMOTE CROSS-CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has awarded the University of California $1 million in grants to assist UC in promoting racial and cultural understanding on its campuses.

The grants, awarded to each of UC's nine campuses under the foundation's Pluralism and Unity Program, will fund on-campus courses and community service projects aimed at fostering better relations and understanding of different ethnic and cultural groups in the 163,000-student system.

Campus projects that will be funded by the grants include new courses in multi-culturalism, a counseling program to train students how to ease cultural tensions, an intern program that will place UC students in K-12 classrooms, forums and seminars to bring UC campuses closer to the communities where they are located and a health education program to teach doctors how to better serve multi-racial communities.

"UC thanks the Hewlett Foundation for its Pluralism and Unity Grant Program and the role it plays in helping colleges and universities become more inclusive, caring communities," said UC President Richard C. Atkinson.

"A university education should help students understand both our differences and our common stake in building a society that works," Atkinson said. "These grants are an investment in California's future that will allow us to give students from widely varying backgrounds more opportunities to learn from and about each other.".

The Hewlett foundation, with more than $1.5 billion in assets, created the Pluralism and Unity Program two years ago to support efforts by colleges and universities nationwide to build into their educational programs improved understanding of the twin values of diversity and community in American life. The grant program seeks to address problems arising from differences in race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexual orientation, religious convictions and physical differences on university and college campuses.

Past grant recipients include the University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, Stanford University, Wellesley College and Wesleyan University. This is the first time that the foundation has awarded pluralism and unity grant to each campus in a university system.

Six of the campuses -- Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, UCLA, Riverside and San Diego -- will receive $100,000 each over the next two years to fund programs they proposed. UC San Francisco will receive $90,000 and UC Santa Barbara will get $80,000 for their programs. UC Santa Cruz, which received $100,000 last year, will get an additional $25,000 to continue its program. Projects to be funded by the grants are:

• UC Berkeley -- Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program. LEAD will train student leaders to understand complex multi-cultural issues. The goal of the program is to create a campus environment where diverse cultures are appreciated as central to the strength of the community.
  

• UC Davis -- The Multi-Cultural Immersion Project. The program will provide opportunities for students, faculty, staff and community leaders to examine the concepts of pluralism and unity. The program will include three academic courses in multi-culturalism, an off-campus public service internship and campuswide programs that promote inter-cultural relations.
  

• UC Irvine -- Border Crossings: Building Community Through Student Leadership. The two-year program will include course work, field work in K-12 schools, forums, speakers and the design and implementation of student-led projects on diversity and community.
  

• UCLA -- UCLA Multi-Cultural Collaborative. The program will train 60 students to deal with diversity-related conflict on campus. It will include coursework, workshop training and campus outreach.
  UC Riverside -- A Comprehensive Approach to Pluralism and Unity. The program has three components: a new study unit in English Department composition courses focusing on American pluralism and unity, expansion of student, faculty and staff training programs in diversity and a program to coordinate student community outreach programs.
  

• UC San Diego -- Hewlett Diversity and Unity Project. This project will expand and enhance the opportunities for 1,200 Thurgood Marshall College students to increase their knowledge of diversity through the college's existing Dimensions of Culture courses. Universitywide forums will also be conducted to promote a campus climate that honors dialogue on diversity.
  

• UC San Francisco -- Diversity, Community and the Health Care Mission. This program will train a select group of students, faculty and staff in diversity issues who will become change agents for the advancement of those ideals. Student mentoring programs and an Internet Student Forum on diversity, healthcare and education will be created. Improvements in the teaching of culturally competent healthcare will be initiated and a project will be launched to archive and publicize events in UCSF's history that led to advancements in diversity.
  

• UC Santa Barbara -- Project Crossroad: Road Signs to the Future. This project will make issues of unity and pluralism a more integral part of the academic curriculum. Public events and forums will be held to explore the issues. Graduate students and faculty will develop ways to incorporate forum themes in their course curricula.
  

• UC Santa Cruz -- Pluralism and Unity Program. This project provides a series of activities supplementing its College Program in U.S. Inter-cultural Studies. The project's goal is to promote a multi-cultural community based on mutual respect and tolerance.
  

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