DIVISION OF GRADUATE STUDIES NEWS ARCHIVE

MAY 2003: FRESNO STATE'S GRADUATE EDUCATION SUCCESS HIGHLIGHTED IN PUBLICATIONS

California State University, Fresno's Division of Graduate Studies and its dean, Vivian A. Vidoli, are featured in a series of three booklets issued by the Council of Graduate Schools that examine diversity and inclusiveness.

The publications are part of a national initiative sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based council to encourage diversity in graduate education. The initiative began last summer with an Idea Exchange at Princeton University, to which Vidoli and six other deans from institutions across the United States were invited. The deans all have previously received national recognition for innovation in promoting an inclusive graduate community.

The group was joined by major leaders in diversity research, and the booklets are an outgrowth of their sessions.

Vidoli, a recognized national leader in graduate education, is quoted extensively in the booklets. Among her comments is one regarding the need to think about how inclusiveness refers not only to including underrepresented populations but to an entire philosophy of education as well. She states: "...an inclusive group means educating students in a certain manner so that when they graduate, they are leaders who can work effectively with members of all groups."

Fresno State, which won the first CGS/Peterson's Award for Innovation in Promoting and Inclusive Graduate Community in 1994, has 4,000 postgraduate students, or one-fifth of the university's total student population, and awards approximately 600 graduate degrees annually. More than 46 percent of enrolled graduate students at Fresno State are from minority groups, far above the national figure of 22 percent and the regional figure of 27 percent.