CSUEB receives award for racial diversity

This+information+was+found+through+CSUEB+enrollment+statistics.

Infographic | Tam Duong Jr.

This information was found through CSUEB enrollment statistics.

Jamal Muhammad,
Contributor

Last month, INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine awarded California State University, East Bay, the 2014 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award, for the university’s efforts to adequately serve its diverse student population.

The announcement will be published in the magazine’s Nov. 14 issue.

Eighty-two other universities were also awarded.

The diversity award calculates school efforts to diversify their student body in several ways: outreach programs, student recruitment, retention, graduation, and hiring practices for faculty and staff.

The deadline to apply was July 1 and representatives of Potomac Publishing, Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri judge applications.

Winners are awarded with a certificate and a plaque, plus the schools have an opportunity to be promoted online.

“Cal State East Bay, the most diverse campus on the mainland, has focused on programs, curriculum, retention, and graduation rates this past year,” said Dianne Rush Woods, diversity officer at CSUEB.

Since 2010, the population at the university has increased. In fall of 2013, 11,733 students from many different ethnicities attended CSUEB.

The university motto with diversity is to apply knowledge, diversity, and multicultural competencies to promote equality and social justice in our communities.

The university aims to provide diverse learning spaces in these areas: compositional, substantive, environmental, and institutional.

According to CSUEB, one goal is to diversify the faculty, staff, and student body that reflects our local communities.

The school also aims to teach different cultural curriculums, create an environment that allows students to feel welcomed and valued, and identify diverse learning outcomes for different departments at the school.

CSUEB organizes events and celebrations to acknowledge cultural holidays and festivities.

Woods said CSUEB works with a variety of services and programs to help students from different backgrounds or the less fortunate have a chance to receive a college degree.

Educators lead Super Sundays workshops each February to speak to African American families about how to prepare their children for college.

Gaining Access ‘N Academic Success is an outreach program at CSUEB that focuses on Latino transfer students by giving them counseling, tutoring, and financial aid workshops, while Student Service Operation for Success works with Asian and Pacific Islander students.

CSUEB also works with Hayward Promise Neighborhood to assist families with college, career and life planning.