One of the hot topics of the presidential races this year is “income inequality,” and candidates may do well to confer with the new head of Pitzer College as he’s one of the nation’s leading experts on the issue.
Melvin L. Oliver, an expert on racial, income and urban inequality and currently the executive dean of the College of Letters and Science at UC Santa Barbara, will become Pitzer College’s sixth president, it was announced Wednesday.
Pitzer is one of five academically respected undergraduate institutions that make up part of the Claremont Colleges in the San Gabriel Valley.
Oliver, who previously taught at UCLA, was chosen by a unanimous vote of the college’s Board of Trustees following a 13-month search process. His start date is July 1.
“Melvin is a seasoned leader, thoughtful problem solver and visionary who is keenly committed to collaboration with an activist’s passion for culture and fairness. We believe he is the perfect fit to assume the presidency at this time in Pitzer’s history,” said Shahan Soghikian, who chairs the Pitzer College Board of Trustees.
“Melvin is a first-generation college student, an award-winning teacher and author, an accomplished scholar and a distinguished foundation and academic leader,” Soghikian added. “In sum, he is a living example of the transformative power of a liberal arts education.”
In addition to serving as executive dean at UCSB’s College of Letters and Science, he is also the SAGE Sara Miller McCune Dean of Social Sciences and a professor of sociology.
“Among his numerous accomplishments during his 12-year tenure has been his championing of increased access for underrepresented students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as faculty diversity,” according to a Pitzer statement.
At the undergraduate level, he was co-principal investigator of a program which prepares qualified underrepresented and first-generation undergraduates for entrance to a doctoral program in all fields of study.
Prior to UCSB, Oliver was vice president of the Asset Building and Community Development Program at the Ford Foundation. Under his direction, the program developed a $50 million grant program to secure home mortgages for 35,000 low-wealth households and change the way banks evaluate applications for home mortgages.
As professor of sociology at UCLA from 1978-96, he was named California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
In 1989, he was the founding co-director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, which promotes research, teaching and service on the causes and consequences of urban poverty in the United States.
Oliver co-authored “Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality” in 1995 and is the co-editor of four books, including “Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angeles.”
Oliver succeeds Laura Skandera Trombley, who began her tenure last July as the president of The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.
— Wire reports