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Messages have been left on the Rock on Michigan State University’s campus since the shooting. The Rock has been used as a billboard of sorts for various student movements over the decades.
Michigan State University students, from left to right, Eva Tilton, Mixtli Guerrero and Madison Ball attended a candlelight vigil at Eastminster Presbyterian Church after a shooting on campus the previous night left three students dead and five injured.
A study by researchers at Michigan State University found that between 1997 and 2019, 4,918 doctoral degrees were awarded by U.S. universities in the discipline of geography. Only 86 of these doctorates, or 1.64 percent, were awarded to African Americans. In no year between 1997 and 2019 did the number of African Americans earning a doctorate in geography exceed nine. In five of these years, there were either zero or one African American who was awarded a doctorate in geography.
The study found nine research universities that combined did not award one doctorate in geography to any nonwhite student during the entire period. Overall, they awarded 200 doctorates in geography during the 22-year period.
The authors found that the differential awarding of degrees was related to the differential funding by race to support the completion of doctoral degrees. Financial support for Black graduate students in the field is lacking, according to the authors.
Researchers recommend that graduate programs in geography follow a model adopted at Michigan State where at least one nonwhite student is recruited and financially supported each year. To demonstrate that the policy works, in the three years before the policy was passed (2015- 2017), there were three Blacks, two Latinx, and one Native American admitted and funded by the department. Three years after the policy was passed (2018–2020), there were 10 Blacks, three Latinx, and one Native American who were admitted and funded.
The authors believe that this approach can be successfully adapted and applied to other geography departments in the U.S. and that through such actions, racial inequity and differential treatment experienced by nonwhite American citizens in geography doctoral programs may be reduced, if not entirely eliminated.
The full study, “Assessing Changes in the Underrepresentation of Blacks, Latinx/Hispanics, and Native American Doctoral Students in U.S. Geography Programs, and a Model for Change: the Michigan State University Model.” was published on the website of the journal SN Social Sciences. It may be accessed here.
Wilmore Webley will serve as the inaugural senior vice provost for equity and inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is an associate professor of microbiology and has been serving as associate dean for inclusion and engagement in the university’s Graduate School. Dr. Webley joined the faculty at the university in 2003.
Dr. Webley earned a bachelor’s degree in medical technology at Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, Jamaica. He holds master’s and doctorate degrees in microbiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Cornelius Gilbert was appointed chief diversity officer at the State University of New York Adirondack in Queensbury. He previously taught at Northern Illinois University and the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
A native of Chicago, Dr. Gilbert earned bachelor’s degrees in history and Afro-American studies, a master’s degree in Afro-American studies, and a doctorate in education with a focus on history, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Krista L. Walker was named assistant dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion for the College of Nursing at Michigan State University. She was an assistant professor of family medicine and director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Medicine.
Dr. Walker is a graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in urban affairs from Queens College of the City University of New York, a master’s degree in teaching urban adolescents with disabilities from Long Island University, and a Ph.D. in educational policy and leadership studies from the University of Iowa.
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