ITHACA, N.Y. -- In 1925 Cornell University became the first institution of higher learning to award a doctorate in pure mathematics to an African American. But well before that, indeed, since its founding in 1865, Cornell had been pursuing cultural and intellectual variety on campus.

Starting this week, on April 29, and continuing through May 1 the university continues to break ground by hosting a landmark conference, "Cornell Mosaic: Celebrating Diversity and Advancing Inclusion," a title that reflects the conference's goals and spotlights Cornell's free-thinking, inclusive atmosphere. Read about the conference.

"Cornell has enjoyed this progress due to many efforts across campus by students, faculty and staff," said Robert L. Harris Jr., vice provost for diversity and faculty development and professor of African-American history in the Africana Studies and Research Center.

The university's efforts have come in the face of stark challenges. For example, Angela Noble-Grange, director of the Office of Women and Minorities at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, points out that few underrepresented minority undergraduates apply to business schools or take the business Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). Also, she notes, high school graduation rates for Latino and African-American youth are significantly lower than for other groups across the nation, even while their populations are growing.

Cornell is striving to overcome this lag by cultivating students at a young age to increase enrollment of future minority students with summer programs. The Johnson School hosts its Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program in Business each summer to attract 30 talented minority students to campus and help them explore business careers. The School of Hotel Administration holds a summer honors program each year, and almost 25 percent of those enrolled last summer were minority students. The School of Industrial and Labor Relations administers an early identification program to target and foster 11th grade students' interest in Cornell, and the College of Engineering's CURIE Academy hosts high school women who excel in math and science in a weeklong summer program every year.

"The CURIE Academy has been extremely successful because it introduces female high school students to hands-on engineering design problems," said Zellman Warhaft, associate dean for diversity in the College of Engineering and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. "This is something that is quite new for most of them." He notes that nearly 30 percent of the undergraduate students in the engineering college are women, compared with the national average of less than 20 percent.

Once students apply to Cornell, understanding shortcomings in the admissions process can greatly benefit minority enrollment. Doris Davis, associate provost for admissions and enrollment, held a workshop for Cornell college admissions officers recently and showed that SAT scores are a poor predictor of academic success for black students. The workshop has influenced admissions decisions. She pointed out that the number of black students admitted grew to 399 for the class of 2009, up from 315 selected last year.

In all, minority applications to Cornell for the class of 2009 jumped by 15 percent over last year, and applications from underrepresented minorities -- African Americans, American Indians, Mexican Americans and mainland Puerto Ricans -- increased 12 percent. In addition, the percentage of underrepresented minority students who were offered admission grew from about 14 percent of the total last year to more than 16.5 percent this year. The Alumni Student Mentoring Program, initiated by Professor Isaac Kramnick, vice provost for undergraduate education, has helped attract more minority students.

At the graduate level, the attrition rate for underrepresented minority doctoral students far exceeds other groups, largely because of inadequate funding. To address these concerns, the provost's office offers about a dozen Diversity Graduate Fellowships each year, and the Graduate School provides fellowship support to all underrepresented doctoral students. The Graduate School also supports the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Minority Ph.D. Program to increase the number of underrepresented minority students in the physical sciences. In addition, the College of Veterinary Medicine boasts the highest proportion of minority students among the nation's veterinary schools, with the exception of Tuskegee University, a historically black school.

For women, challenges persist, in some areas more than others. In business schools around the country, for example, women outnumber men at the undergraduate level but fewer women enroll in MBA programs. "MBA programs are struggling to hold onto between 25 and 30 percent enrollment of women," said Noble-Grange. "We are around 30 percent," up from 26 percent just six years ago.

As for staff and faculty, Cornell has made great strides in recent years in recruiting women and minority faculty. In just one year, the number of women faculty has grown to 383, from 375, and the number of minority faculty has increased to 208, from 200. In addition, the provost's Academic Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship program offers three fellowships a year for minority scholars to come to Cornell. "A measure of the success of this program is that Cornell has hired two of these postdoctoral associates into its regular faculty," said Paul Houston, senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Cornell now has more African-American, Latino and Native American faculty members than any other Ivy League school. And the newly renovated and expanded Africana Studies and Research Center positions the program for growth: The College of Arts and Sciences, for example, already has approval for three new faculty positions for Africanists.

Cornell's holistic approach to diversity also includes maintaining a positive and inclusive climate for all its students. Each of the colleges has specialized academic and student service staff to advise minority students. The Dean of Students' Office houses the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender Office, the Women's Resource Center and Cornell United Religious Work; an assistant dean of fraternity and sorority affairs, who works with the Multicultural Greek Letter Council; and an assistant dean for diversity, who works on advising, orientation and programming. And within Campus Life there is a director of student affairs and diversity.

"As the university becomes a more diverse, friendly, welcoming and supportive environment, it benefits everyone at Cornell," observes Harris.