The James Irvine Foundation recently awarded $5 million in grants to California colleges and universities to increase diversity.
The grants, made to USC and Occidental College in Los Angeles, Claremont Graduate University, Dominican University of California in San Rafael, and others, are part of the foundation's Campus Diversity Initiative, designed to open the opportunities of a college education to people of all ethnic and economic backgrounds.
"California today is the setting of a demographic revolution," said foundation President Dennis A. Collins. "By some estimates, the state no longer has a majority population, and projections are that it will only get more diverse. Yet higher education in the state hasn't reflected that diversity as well as it should."
The foundation was established in 1937 by area pioneer James Irvine, and has assets of $1.6 billion. The foundation makes grants of about $75 million annually throughout California.
