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ford fellowship
UMD graduate students reflect on end of Ford foundation diversity fellowship By Nene Narh-Mensah | @Nene_NarhMensah | Staff writer
The Ford Foundation is ending its 60-year-old diversity fellowship program, announced foundation President Darren Walker on Sept. 16. The fellowship was designed to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of higher education faculties. University of Maryland students and faculty have expressed concern over the foundation’s decision, saying it could negatively impact graduate students who depend on the fellowship funding. Fellowship recipients receive an annual stipend and can attend the Conference of Ford Fellows — where they can get personal mentoring and meet with other award winners. The awards are geared toward students working in a variety of
fields, according to Walker, and are currently administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The education landscape has improved for funding opportunities for graduate students, Walker said. An increase in philanthropic support from organizations such as the Gates Foundation allowed the organization to redirect funding once put toward the fellowship to other areas of social justice. “We recognized the need to invest more deeply in movement-building work — an essential catalyst for social change that receives only a fraction of racial equity funding,” Walker wrote in the statement. The foundation will accept another
cohort of fellows for the 2023 school year and a “limited number” in 2024. Joey Haavik, a graduate student in the international education policy program and the Graduate Student Government president, said the foundation’s decision will decrease opportunities for students to pursue advanced degrees. “The exorbitant cost around graduate school and also just higher education in general continues to be a barrier for historically minoritized and marginalized communities,” Haavik said. “When you have a fellowship, like the Ford Foundation’s, come in and fully try to break that system of elitism and supremacism. It really does make a difference.” Physics doctoral student Anthony
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