The Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program: A Pre- and Post-Grutter Analysis

Abstract

The study compares the demographics and degree attainment in Washington University’s (the University) Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program (CGFP) in the pre- and post-Grutter era. The fellowship program’s aims included bolstering African American graduate degree completion and preparing African American faculty members. The 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger affirmative action case serves as a break point to compare the 1991–2003 cohorts and the 2004–2008 cohorts. Interviews of key leaders give a historical perspective on the program’s mission. Institutional data organized to form two cohorts, pre- and post-Grutter comparison groups, provide insight into demographic trends and degree attainment. The CGFP realized its original mission to diversify the professoriate by supporting underrepresented graduate students. The vast majority of alumni in both cohorts earned a graduate degree and earned their intended degrees. The two cohorts achieved high doctoral degree attainment. Time-to-degree findings and placement within the academy demonstrated a positive outcome. However, the program post-Grutter has generated fewer African American participants. In the post-Grutter era, the University needs to develop new strategies to increase the racial diversity of graduate education. As a complementary resource, the CGFP, as part of a broader portfolio of programmatic and policy tools designed to diversify, merits continued investment. Only a fraction of programs focused on African American doctoral attainment publish evaluation data. The study captures the programmatic effects of the Grutter decision at an elite American university.

Citation

Notaro, S.R., Daugherty, E., C. Hogrebe, M., Howard, P., Mitchell, D.H. and Tate, W.F. (2016), "The Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program: A Pre- and Post-Grutter Analysis", The Crisis of Race in Higher Education: A Day of Discovery and Dialogue (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 237-259. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-364420160000019013