ACE announced today that Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California (UC), is the recipient of the 2018 Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award.
The award is named in honor of Reginald Wilson, senior scholar
emeritus at ACE and founding director of the Council's Office of
Minority Concerns (now part of ACE Leadership). It is presented annually
to an individual who has made outstanding contributions and
demonstrated sustained commitment to diversity in higher education.
The award was presented today at ACE2018,
ACE's 100th Annual Meeting. Accepting the award on Napolitano’s behalf
was Yvette Gullat, UC vice provost and chief outreach officer.
“Now more than ever, we need leaders like Janet Napolitano who are
committed to mobilizing the university as an institution of
intellectual, economic, and social opportunity for people from all
backgrounds,” said ACE President Ted Mitchell. “Her focus on advancing
diversity at all levels at the University of California and across the
country makes me very pleased to give her this award.”
As the 20th president of UC, and the first woman in that role,
Napolitano has implemented many policies focused on inclusion for
ethnic, racial, and gender minorities. She has appointed exemplary women
and underrepresented minorities at all levels of the university,
including key executive roles, creating a highly diverse leadership
cabinet.
As the original author of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) program, Napolitano has spent her tenure as president launching
initiatives designed to help Dreamers succeed at UC and beyond. She
helped create the university’s Immigrant Legal Services Center, which
provides free legal assistance to UC students and their families.
In 2016, she issued the “University of California Statement of
Principles in Support of Undocumented Members of the UC Community,”
which clarifies that primary jurisdiction over enforcement of federal
immigration law rests with the federal government and Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, precluding UC from contacting, detaining,
questioning, or arresting individuals solely on the basis of suspected
immigration status. She was also responsible for the university’s
sponsorship of a bill that established the California DREAM Loan
Program, which aims to allow eligible undocumented high school students
the opportunity to apply for loans to help pay for their education.
In 2015, Napolitano launched an initiative to provide California
Community College students seeking to earn a UC degree in 10 popular
majors, from economics to cell biology, with a clear academic roadmap to
prepare for admission at any UC campus and be well positioned to
graduate within two years. The program represented a major step toward
creating a simple, straightforward process to streamline transfer to UC
from California's community colleges, with the additional goal of
helping to save students time and money by avoiding unneeded courses. At
UC, she has also launched a number of initiatives aimed at expanding
opportunities for underserved populations.
Under her leadership, for example, the university is partnering with
historically black colleges and universities to provide opportunities
for their graduates to attend UC for their graduate careers. UC is also
enhancing resources for undocumented students in recognition that these
students face unique challenges. And the university announced last fall
that all 10 UC campuses are joining together in a system-wide effort to
connect first-generation students with faculty mentors who have walked
in their shoes, and to facilitate access to resources to help these
students succeed.
Napolitano earned a bachelor’s degree in political science,
graduating summa cum laude in 1979 from Santa Clara University (CA),
where she was Phi Beta Kappa, a Truman Scholar, and the university’s
first female valedictorian. She received her law degree in 1983 from the
University of Virginia School of Law, and, in 2010, she was awarded the
prestigious Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal (Law), the University of
Virginia’s highest external honor.