New York Grants Stony Brook U. $1 Million to Advance ‘Diversity’

Stony Brook University announced recently that it has received a $957,000 grant from the state of New York for the purpose of advancing “diversity” on campus.

According to a report by Campus Reform, Stony Brook University is set to receive almost $1 million from the state of New York for the purpose of advancing “diversity” on campus. The money will primarily be used to increase “diversity” amongst the faculty at Stony Brook, which is one of several public universities in the state of New York.

Dr. Jarvis Watson, Interim Chief Diversity Officer at Stony Brook University, said in a press release that the funds will help the university increase “structural diversity” within the Stony Brook faculty.

“The PRODiG initiative is New York’s commitment toward investing necessary resources in increasing the structural diversity within our faculty,” Watson said. “This initiative has not only provided a pathway for us to recruit and hire diverse faculty, it has served as a catalyst for academic leaders from all campus locations (East, West, Southampton, Eastern Long Island and Manhattan) to work collaboratively and intentionally to create an inclusive and equitable learning environment.”

The university aims to employe 1,000 professors from groups it labels “underrepresented” by the year 2030. The university currently employs around 2,700 faculty members.

The goal of this system-wide initiative — a comprehensive approach not yet attempted at this scale in higher education — is to support SUNY campuses in their efforts to recruit and retain up to 1,000 early-to-mid-career professors from underrepresented groups by 2030. It also will focus on building an educational pipeline that identifies talented students in high school and develops academic career opportunities, with the view that among today’s high school students are the PRODiG faculty of tomorrow.

This isn’t the only funding that Stony Brook University will receive to hire “diverse” faculty members. According to the press release, the “initial round” of funding will be used to pay the salaries of just six new professors.