Alcorn State University’s commitment to maintaining a campus that is welcoming to all and its diverse student body was again recognized with the 2013 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity award. This is the second year in a row that Alcorn has won the HEED award from Insight into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.
As a recipient of the annual HEED Award - a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion - Alcorn will be featured along with 55 other recipients in INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine’s November 2013 issue. Alcorn is again the only four-year historically black college or university featured on the list.
Shortly after being named the 18th president of Alcorn, Dr. M. Christopher Brown II established the Office of Educational Equity and Inclusion to confirm the institution’s commitment to focus beyond numbers and strive for qualitative diversity.
“While we continue to value the traditional goals in higher education to increase quantitative diversity, we are equally invested in fostering experiences that promote qualitative inclusion to ensure a campus climate that respects and honors all individuals,” says President Brown.
Under Brown’s leadership, Alcorn recently hired C. Edward Rhodes II as rector of the historic Oakland Memorial Chapel and director of Student Religious Life signifying its dedication to religious diversity and inclusion. Alcorn, further demonstrating its commitment to diversity, also recently celebrated its Founders Day with Chamberlain-Hunt Academy. Chamberlain-Hunt, a predominantly white college prep school, and Alcorn trace their beginnings to Oakland College, a school founded by the Presbytery of Mississippi in 1830. Both schools had held their Founders Day at Oakland Memorial Chapel on the Alcorn campus on different days.
Alcorn has also added more selections to its cafeteria meal choices, giving Muslim and Jewish students more food choices. The school maintains relationships with all of its students, ensuring they have a vehicle to discuss inclusion and diversity concerns with faculty and staff.
“This award once again affirms how the Alcorn family continues to honor this important work, and we are proud of how diversity and inclusion has truly become infused throughout all aspects of institutional operation,” says Dr. Derek Greenfield, director of Educational Equity and Inclusion.
“We hope the HEED award serves as a way to honor those institutions of higher education that recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion as part of their everyday campus culture,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
For more information about the 2013 HEED award, visit
www.insightintodiversity.com. For more information about Alcorn State University, visit
www.alcorn.edu. -ALCORN-
Alcorn State University is a premier comprehensive land-grant university that develops diverse students into globally competitive leaders, and applies scientific research through collaborative partnerships that benefit the surrounding communities, state, nation, and world.
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Thursday, October 17th 2013 at 3:26PM
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