Terry Plater is the new associate dean for academic affairs in Cornell University's Graduate School. She assumed her position in January 1999, succeeding Eleanor Reynolds, who retired in the fall 1998 semester.

As associate dean at the Graduate School, Plater is working to recruit and retain underrepresented minority graduate students. She also is involved with graduate student organizations and has broad responsibilities for graduate policy.

Universities in general have a poor record of attracting Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos and Latinas to doctoral programs, and the demand for the few who apply to Ivy League institutions like Cornell has intensified in recent years. Plater said she hopes to improve the picture here.

"Cornell can be outstanding in equity, access and excellence in advanced education," she said, "by shaping programs in ways that benefit the entire university population." She cites the university's Summer Research Program, which she manages, as an example. The program pairs research-minded undergraduates with appropriate faculty members. "We hope to engage more undergraduates, including underrepresented minorities, in the intellectual life of the university," said Plater, "so that when they think about applying to graduate school later on, they'll consider Cornell." Her goal, she says, is to work to remove any institutional barriers that might prevent them from succeeding as graduate students.

"I am very pleased that Terry has joined us," said Professor Christine Ranney, acting dean of the Graduate School. "She was chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants from around the world and clearly stood out as a candidate. She already has made important contributions to graduate education at Cornell, and we predict she'll continue to do so."

Plater earned a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and most recently taught in that discipline at Cornell. She has a master's in architecture degree from Columbia University and a B.A. in psychology with a minor in fine

art from Villanova University. Before coming to Cornell, she taught at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1989 to 1994.

Her areas of scholarly expertise include international migration and immigration, African development, urban development and community planning, and architectural design analysis. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a Kellogg Foundation leadership fellowship.

She also received grants from the Cornell Faculty Fellows-in-Service Program for two collaborative community development projects. In one project she and her students worked with Ithaca's Southside Community Center on such team-driven efforts as the teaching of computer skills to community members and the planning of a historic map of the Southside neighborhood, including structures that were stops on the underground railroad. The second project involved grass-roots economic strategies for El Lim—n, a small village in the Dominican Republic whose population was being depleted through migration. Cornell's Office of Distance Learning helped link Plater and her students with the villagers.

In addition Plater worked for the Ford Foundation, where she was involved in a grant-giving program with countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and she has lived and worked in Africa, Europe, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean. In addition, she is a visual artist whose paintings have been exhibited in Philadelphia and Ithaca galleries.

"Terry's appointment is wonderful news for Cornell," said John Forester, professor and chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning. "She cares deeply about all students and is very committed to helping them find their way."