Reporter Volume 25, No.16 February 10, 1994

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

The Association of American Colleges (AAC) recently named the
University at Buffalo as one of 20 resource institutions in its
Curriculum and Faculty Development Network, a project promoting
cultural diversity and tolerance in U.S. educational institutions.
John Meacham, professor of psychology and one of UB's liaisons to the
project, said that the selection constitutes recognition of UB's
leadership role in scholarship and teaching about diversity at the
undergraduate level.
	The network is one of three projects currently operating under
the AAC's new initiative, American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy
and Liberal Learning, which is funded by a $1.18 million grant from
the Ford Foundation, according to Meacham. As a resource institution,
UB's role will be to help two of the 40 institutions selected as
planning institutions by the AAC with "course and faculty development
in the area of American diversity," Meacham said.
	Meacham said that central to UB's selection as a resource
institution for the project is its American Pluralism course, which
has been required for all Arts and Science majors since fall 1992. The
course, with various sections taught by professors from a number of
different departments, deals with questions of race, gender, social
class, ethnicity and religious sectarianism, Meacham said. About 25 UB
faculty members are currently involved with the American Pluralism
course, Meacham said. "This course really belongs to the whole UB
community," he said.
	"The course improves tolerance and the understanding of
difference at UB," Meacham said. "It reaches about 1300 students a
year. When the AAC looked at UB's program, they could see
cohesiveness, integration, and good faculty development." The
selection process for participation in the network was highly
competitive for both resource and planning institutions, Meacham said.
	As part of the project, Meacham and the other UB liaison to
the project, Jeannette Ludwig of Modern Languages and Literatures,
will participate in a conference on "Teaching Diversity and
Diversifying Teaching" in New Orleans on Feb. 17-20, where they will
talk about what UB has done to promote diversity. At the conference,
Meacham and Ludwig will meet with representatives from the planning
institutions with which UB has been paired, City College of New York
and Community College of Philadelphia, he said. Then, in late spring
or next fall, Meacham said, representatives from the two planning
institutions will visit UB in order to learn how to develop their own
diversity courses for undergraduates. Meacham and Ludwig will do an
on-site visit and consultation with the planning institutions, he
added.
	Meacham cited the visibility that UB achieves by being
involved with the AAC, the Ford Foundation, and 60 other institutions
as key to the importance of participating in the project. In such a
project, "we learn as much as we contribute," he said. 
	"There's a lot more that needs to be done at UB in terms of
promoting diversity, and there's still a lot we can learn from other
schools about how they do it," he said.
	"We need good scholarship and teaching in this area," Meacham
said. "UB has a chance to remain a leader in the area of teaching
diversity if we can get the support we need and can continue to push
the American Pluralism course."