Increasing racial and ethnic MPH student diversity: An overview of the five-year strategic planning process at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Excellence in public health demands a diverse population of public health professionals. In 2004, the Committee on Student Diversity at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health issued a report that: documented the School's performance with regard to student diversity; identified facilitators and barriers affecting diversity; provided recommendations to address those barriers with baseline data and templates for a five-year strategic plan to increase student racial/ethnic diversity. We conceptualized stages of recruitment and retention that determined the racial/ethnic diversity of the School. The stages included: 1) increasing the proportion of minority applicants, 2) reviewing admission processes, 3) increasing enrollment of admitted minority students, and 4) increasing the graduation rate of matriculated students. Four major efforts informed the report: summarizing a decade's worth of quantitative data on Master's program applications, acceptances, matriculation and graduation by race and ethnicity; polling departments and the Office of Student Affairs about activities aimed at increasing diversity; holding focus groups with students to learn about perceived barriers and facilitators to successfully promoting student diversity; and participating in a community forum initiated by the Black and Latino Student Caucus to hear suggestions for dealing with racism on campus and improving the climate for minority students. Since then monitoring has continued, a workshop on bias and the law was held for all faculty participating in admissions procedures and a series of scientific sessions on the impact of stereotype threat and of unconscious bias in academic settings has been held. Lessons learned and results to date will be presented.