Aaron P. Dworkin (b. 1970),
is featured at AfriClassical.com
Afa S. Dworkin
Nine of the Virtuosi Sphinx performers rocking hard
Bwog
Columbia Student News
Written by Sarah Dahl
October 15, 2015
Higher education needs more diverse leaders, to help as many
students from as many different backgrounds as possible achieve their
goals. Sarah Dahl reports on Tuesday evening’s panel on diversity in
higher education, which discussed this need from a variety of
perspectives.
With a stirring contemporary string composition inspired by civil rights activist Rosa Parks, the Virtuosi Sphinx performers
prefaced the panel. The Virtuosi Sphinx performers are part of the
national Detroit-based Sphinx Organization, “dedicated to transforming
lives through the power of diversity in the arts,” whose founder, Aaron
Dworkin, was among the panelists.
Sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity and
Inclusion and the Office of University Life, the event included
presentations from accomplished minority academics, some of whom voiced
concrete steps toward improving diversity in higher education, and some
of whom merely lamented the lack thereof and cited statistics.
Columbia Business School professor and Senior Vice Dean Katherine W.
Phillips, Ph.D. presented first. She displayed statistics of women in
the workplace, citing unsettling numbers such as the fact that women
comprise 47% of the workforce but just 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs.
She also spoke about her research on problem-solving and
decision-making variances between homogenous and diverse groups. Her
studies have shown that diverse groups can and do lead to better
performance and decision-making than homogenous teams, but despite this,
diverse teams have much lower perceived effectiveness and confidence in
their answers than do homogenous groups.
“We assume people who look differently from us think differently from
us,” she said. “But if you aren’t open, you won’t benefit from
diversity.
Professor Phillips also spoke briefly about the Ph.D. project in the Business School, which aims to increase diversity there.
Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Bridge to the
Ph.D. Program in the Natural Sciences Marcel A. Agüeros moved the
conversation from diversity in the workforce to diversity in academia.
He focused on diversity in science, highlighting the fact that our
education system fails to produce enough STEM students to fill jobs and
discussing the lack of minority representation in STEM.
Professor Agüeros also described Columbia’s Bridge Program for minorities: two years of intense classes, lab work, and mentoring experience that helps enhance students’ Ph.D. candidacy.
Next up was City College of New York (CCNY) Grove School of
Engineering Dean and Berg Professor Gilda Barabino, Ph.D., who offered a
personal account.
She spoke of her experience being the “first black woman” in many
moments of her life, from the first black female engineering Ph.D.
student at Rice University to first black female dean at CCNY.
She also presented statistics displaying the lack of improvement in
diversity in engineering: between 1993 and 2012, engineering bachelors
earned by minority women stayed at just 2-4%, with no growth.
Sphinx founder and Dean at University of Michigan School of Music,
Theatre & Dance Aaron P. Dworkin began his presentation by talking
about his past.
As the biracial son of a Jehovah’s Witness and an Irish Catholic,
adopted by Jewish parents, he experienced much dichotomy growing up.
“The violin is the greatest constant in my life,” he said.
He cited the underrepresentation of blacks and Latinos in music and
the arts, and said the situation has remained relatively unchanged for
the past 10 years.
He spoke about the wonders art can work in education. “It can
literally make the difference for those who are less well off,” he said,
explaining that students who have arts-rich experiences do better
academically across the board.
Dworkin also noted that compared to other countries, American funding
for the arts is seriously lacking: we spend just .0005% of our GDP on
the arts, compared to Germany’s 2%, and France and Britain’s 1%.
The funding that exists tends not to find its way to underserved
communities. This asymmetry disadvantages all of us by restricting the
types of cultural experiences we have, he said.
Between 1998 and 2008, Sphinx has created programs that have improved the situation for minorities in the arts.
Dworkin ended with a quote from MLK: “Our lives begin to end the day
we become silent about things that matter,” speaking to a need for all
of us to work towards creating and celebrating diversity in higher
education.