Block inspires push for diversity

Professor Manuel Penichet searches for ways the body can fight against cancer, but the Cuban native is also busy fighting to maintain UCLA’s diverse population by including minority students in his research and acting as their mentor.

Students act as members of Penichet’s research team and receive support to publish their own articles in various biomedical journals and present their results at prestigious conferences, he said.

Penichet is just one of many faculty members who work daily to increase the diversity of UCLA. He said he welcomes Chancellor Gene Block’s commitment to keep this issue a priority of the university.

Block said he hopes individuals like Penichet will help improve faculty diversity over time.

“Faculty diversity itself is critical,” Block said.

Though today’s inauguration ceremony marks the official beginning of Block’s chancellorship, he has been hard at work over the past nine months to help UCLA focus on increasing diversity, an issue that many said the university has failed to focus on in the past.

“As more (faculty) are models, it’s like a chain reaction,” Penichet said. “Often minority students think they can’t be successful in science, but if you put them in the right environment, they realize how smart they are and they can make great contributions.”

“We’re very clear that we seek faculty who are committed to advancement and to the mentoring of underrepresented students,” said Rosina Becerra, vice provost for faculty diversity and development. “Faculty come to UCLA with the understanding that they are contributing knowledge but that they are also bringing the next generation up.”

Jose Rodriguez, a graduate student in molecular biology, worked with Penichet for two years as an undergraduate at UCLA, and said he would not have gone into graduate research if he hadn’t worked closely with Penichet.

“I wasn’t gung ho in the beginning, but after a few years I really started liking it,” Rodriguez said.

Though Rodriguez said he appreciated the research experience, he learned the most from Penichet because the professor understood where his mentee had come from and was able to give the best advice.

Becerra praised faculty members like Penichet.

“(Penichet is) not only an outstanding scholar, but one who contributes to all aspects of advancing this campus.”

It is under Block’s leadership that university officials have renewed their efforts to increase campus diversity.

Becerra, who was recently appointed to her position by Block, works to recruit faculty members from a variety of backgrounds and trains existing faculty in the ways they can work to support and encourage a diverse UCLA population. Her position was the first of its kind among University of California administrators, she said.

Block said that, during his time at the University of Virginia, where he held the position of provost before coming to UCLA, he heard complaints from Asian American faculty and students that no one else looked like them.

By providing UCLA faculty members with training, Block and other administrators hope to avoid similar comments from the UCLA community.

“(There will be) at least one person on each faculty search committee who’s had diversity training,” Block said.

Such training will ensure that all interviews of potential faculty members are conducted with sensitivity, he said.

For example, a female professor may have a gap in her publishing record because she took time off to raise children, and this circumstance will be taken into consideration, Block said.

Darnell Hunt, director of the Bunche Center for African American Studies, works to recruit top black scholars to his department.

Hunt said he feels the UCLA campus has taken the issue of diversity more seriously since Block came to UCLA.

“The most important change is that he’s provided clear leadership,” he said.

Hunt added that consistency from a top leader like the chancellor is needed by the UCLA community in order for change to occur.

“You can’t make a difference on the diversity front if we don’t have a leader who can articulate the issue, commit resources and keep the university focused on the issues,” Hunt said.

With reports from Julia Erlandson, Bruin senior staff.