Gevirtz School Dean and Professor Jeffrey Milem gave the keynote lecture and led the divisional discussion at UC Santa Barbara’s Student Affairs 2019 Professional Development Conference on December 12 in the Corwin Pavilion. His talk was titled “Education, Diversity, and Democracy: How Can We Fulfill Higher Education’s Promise to Prepare Citizens for an Increasingly Diverse Democracy?”
Prior to coming to UCSB, Milem was the Ernest W. McFarland Distinguished Professor in Leadership for Educational Policy and Reform in the College of Education at the University of Arizona. He is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and has been awarded the American College Personnel Association’s Contributions to Higher Education award. Professor Milem’s research focuses on the ways in which colleges and universities can be organized to enhance equity, access, and success for all students; the racial context within higher education; and the relationship between how colleges and universities organize themselves and student outcomes and faculty role performance. As a widely recognized expert in the area of racial dynamics in higher education, Milem has been commissioned to do research by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Harvard Civil Rights Project, the American Council on Education, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the American Educational Research Association’s Panel on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education.
With his colleagues Mitchell Chang and Anthony Antonio, he co-authored Making Diversity Work on Campus: A Research Based Perspective, published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, which translates research demonstrating the educational benefits of diversity to develop a “roadmap” for college leaders of the conditions that must be in place if they are to maximize the opportunities for teaching and learning that racial diversity provides. Milem contributed to two of the three books that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor cited in her majority opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger as being influential in helping to document the university’s claim regarding the educational benefits of diversity. He also worked closely on amicus briefs for both iterations of the Fisher v. Texas case.
UCSB’s Division of Student Affairs advances the education, research, and service mission of the University by providing programs and services that contribute to students’ academic achievement, personal development, well-being and success. The Division, under the leadership of The Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Margaret Klawunn, concerns itself with student academic support services, student life, and student wellness.