Vice Provost For Educational Equity, James Stewart, Announces Plans To Return To The Faculty

1-15-98
University Park, Pa. -- Dr. James B. Stewart, vice provost for educational equity and professor of labor and industrial relations, today (Jan. 15) announced his intention to step down from the vice provost position at the beginning of the 1998-99 academic year and return to the faculty. "I am looking forward enthusiastically to assuming full-time teaching activities and conducting research related to diversity and multiculturalism," he said.

"We are grateful to Dr. Stewart for the leadership he has brought to Penn State's goal to be a welcoming place for people of diverse backgrounds, where they can experience success and, indeed, excel," Penn State Provost John Brighton said.

"Much progress has been made in the years Dr. Stewart served as the University's initial vice provost for educational equity. While we understand and applaud his wish to return to the faculty, Jim's contributions to the Penn State administration will be missed."

Stewart assumed the position of vice provost for educational equity in 1990 after having served for a number of years as director of Penn State's Black Studies Program. One of the major initiatives during his tenure as vice provost has been the initiation of a specific strategic planning process focusing on enhancement of diversity efforts. This process has produced a university-wide diversity strategic plan that will be introduced and implemented in early 1998.

Since 1988 he has also been responsible for overseeing the implementation Penn State's "Plan for Equal Opportunity," which is one component of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's desegregation plan. Stewart was also actively involved in developing and implementing the University's SHARE Program during the period of anti-apartheid protests in the mid-1980s. More recently, he has also coordinated Penn State's annual commemoration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday.

Stewart's contributions have been recognized through a number of awards. He received Penn State's "Award for Outstanding Contributions to Improving Equal Opportunity and Cross Cultural Relations" in 1992. The Forum on Black Affairs named him the first recipient of its Humanitarian Service Award in 1985.

Following his return to the faculty, Stewart intends to pursue a variety of teaching and research interests in Black/Africana studies and labor studies. His recent work has focused on the thought of W.E.B. Du Bois, the problems facing African Americans in post-industrial labor markets, equal opportunity in the U.S. military, and affirmative action in South Africa. "These are all significant issues with significant public policy implications. I hope to play an active role in advancing knowledge in all these areas," Stewart said.

Minority enrollment at Penn State reached an all-time high in the 1997-98 school year, with 7,721 minority students attending the University.

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Contact: Bill Mahon at np3@psu.edu email or (814) 865-7517 office