History and Mission

In 1988 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched a program designed to increase the number of African-American, Latino/a, and American Indian faculty members at U.S. colleges and universities by providing academically promising students from these groups with mentoring, opportunities for conducting independent research, skills development, and initiation into the academic life. Wesleyan's Mellon Program has been in existence since 1989, and received its fourth round of funding in 2000. Of the 100-plus PhDs who have emerged from the MMUF as of the spring of 2004, 4 are Wesleyan alumni and 9 are currently in graduate school in PhD programs.

In 2003, in response to the Supreme Court decisions in the two University of Michigan affirmative-action cases and to persistent attacks on race-based programs at U.S. institutions of higher learning, the Foundation reaffirmed its commitment to the Fellowship and broadened its mission. At the same time, the Foundation renamed the program to connect its mission to the societal, scholarly, and educational commitments and achievements of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays (1894-1984), a life-long champion of civil rights, a distinguished scholar of religion, mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., and president of Morehouse College from 1940 to 1967.

The MMUF mission statement now reads: "The fundamental objective of MMUF is to increase the number of minority students, and others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, who will pursue PhDs in core fields in the arts and sciences. The program aims to reduce over time the serious underrepresentation on faculties of individuals from certain minority groups, as well as to address the attendant educational consequences of these disparities. The program serves the related goals of structuring campus environments so that they will be more conducive to improved racial and ethnic relations, and of providing role models for all youth."