Commitment to Diversity

Three years ago, the Yale SOM Standing Task Force on Diversity authored a vision statement on diversity for the school. The document called diversity a central element of SOM’s mission to educate leaders for business and society. Spurred by this statement, the task force, which is comprised of Dean Sharon Oster, faculty, students, and staff, has spent the past three years launching a number of initiatives aimed at increasing the diversity of the student body and weaving diversity throughout the fabric of SOM.

The task force meets several times per year. At the beginning of each year, a number of goals are established and committees are created to work toward them. In recent years, the task force has helped establish the Pre-MBA Leadership Program, a two-week summer program where college students and recent graduates who are under-represented in MBA programs are introduced to the fundamentals of management education; urged the school to join the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, a scholarship and advocacy organization dedicated to increasing the numbers of under-represented groups in business schools; increased international outreach to prospective students; and worked to add diversity elements to the curriculum and Orientation.

"I’m very encouraged by the task force," said Allan Coye '11. "And I’m even more encouraged by what I think it will accomplish going forward."