Baruch College Named to “Top 20 University” List by Equal Opportunity Magazine
August 9, 2021
Baruch College continues to earn national accolades in 2021 for academic excellence and campus diversity with the latest recognition coming from Equal Opportunity magazine for its “Top 20 Universities” list.
According to the magazine, being on the list indicates that Baruch College offers a “diversified curriculum, student base, and faculty, and foster[s] a diverse and inclusive learning environment.”
Baruch joins such prestigious universities as Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, John Hopkins, Cornell, California State University, Texas A&M International University, and Tuskegee University.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts at Baruch
Since becoming president of Baruch College on July 1, 2020, S. David Wu, PhD, has made diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) a top priority. Over the last year, the College has launched multiple new initiatives to reaffirm its commitment to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for all members of our community. The Presidential Advisory Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion engages with the campus community to conceive a long-term vision for building and strengthening a culture of DEI at Baruch.
Elliott Dawes, JD, LLM, a well-known DEI leader, started his tenure as Baruch College’s Executive Chief Diversity Officer on August 2. He will be responsible for collaborating, coordinating, and strategizing with internal and external stakeholders in order to design, implement, and assess a comprehensive strategy for institutional transformation—new policies, procedures, initiatives, and programs across departments, divisions and units—that will enable Baruch to realize our shared vision through action.
External Gifts Supporting Baruch’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Baruch College has also obtained external recognition for its DEI efforts. Bank of America provided the institution $1 million supporting education and career development programs that prepare Black and Latino students to enter the professional workforce, and to embark on a path to success. This represents the largest corporate gift to Baruch in 20 years, and is the second largest in the College’s history.
Additionally, an anonymous donor gifted $25,000 to Baruch College’s Black and Latino Studies Department to support the institution’s efforts to expand academic and professional opportunities for these students. Shelley Eversley, interim chair of the Department at the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, said, “this gift will help us build the field’s next iteration, a 21st Century program that empowers our students to practice ethics and a commitment to social and racial justice in their intellectual pursuits and to leverage those skills once they enter the workforce.”
Diverse Student Population
Baruch College is a dynamic community of scholars and distinguished professionals who educate one of the most diverse student populations in the United States. The College’s students hail from 155 countries and speak more than 100 languages. As of Fall 2020, racial and ethnic minorities made up 68 percent of the College’s undergraduate population.
This year alone, Baruch has garnered several top placements including #1 in the Northeast on The Princeton Review’s “Top 50 Best Value Colleges 2021” and ranking #5 in the Northeast according to the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education “College Rankings 2021.”
Methodology
The Equal Opportunity magazine “Top 20 Universities” list is compiled from results of an annual survey to select readers of Equal Opportunity, a career-guidance and recruitment magazine, which reaches more than 135,000 members of minority groups who are students, entry-level and professionals in all career disciplines.
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