PRESIDENT'S INITIATIVE ON RACE PARTNERS
WITH COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Miami, Florida -- Responding to President Clinton's call for action on racial reconciliation, the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) today announced a year-long partnership with the Presidents Initiative on Race to encourage every college and university to conduct special programs focusing on race and other dimensions of diversity in American society.

Professor John Hope Franklin, chairman of the Advisory Board to the President's Initiative on Race, Board members Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, senior pastor of the Bronx Christian Fellowship, and former Mississippi governor William Winter, along with Judith Winston, executive director of the President's Initiative, attended the ACE and AAC&U conference to discuss the role that the higher education community can play in expanding the national dialogue on race.

"For the past two decades, colleges and universities have served as hot-beds for issues revolving around affirmative action, multi-cultural classes, and faculty diversification," Professor Franklin said. These institutions have a particular vantage point from which to examine the issues of race and racism."

One of the features of this year-long partnership will be for several college presidents from around the country to outline activities they will undertake on their own campuses related to the Presidents Initiative on Race.

Mrs. Winston said: "We are extremely pleased to be working with the American Council on Education and the Association of American Colleges and Universities on what I believe is an important issue in race relations: access to higher education."

The President's Initiative on Race is a year-long effort to create a stronger, more just, more united American community. For additional information, write, or visit the Initiatives Web site:

The Presidents Initiative on Race
New Executive Office Building
725 17th Street, NW, Room 3236
Washington, D.C. 20503