Northwestern is joining a new University of Pennsylvania program to increase the number of Latino professors in the humanities.

Pathways to the Professoriate, a program launched by the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Penn’s Graduate School of Education, will help prepare 90 undergraduate students from Hispanic-serving institutions — schools with an enrollment of at least 25 percent Hispanic full-time undergraduates —  for doctoral programs at research institutions over a five-year period.

“We appreciate the opportunity to join in this important work and are committed to continuing to enhance our efforts toward creating a more diverse and inclusive Northwestern,” Provost Daniel Linzer said in a news release.

The initiative is a result of demographic trends in higher education toward a scarcer amount of Latino professors, according to the news release. Latinos make up only 4.1 percent of the professoriate, but 20 percent of the general population aged 18-44.

“We firmly believe that there can be no truly excellent environment for the training of scholars and practitioners unless that environment includes diverse individuals, with diverse intellectual interests, and from diverse backgrounds and perspectives,” Linzer said.

Students in the program will participate in summer research programs and conferences and receive guidance for the graduate school admissions process.

The program, funded with a $5.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, includes three Hispanic-serving institutions — Florida International University, the University of Texas at El Paso and California State University, Northridge — and five research institutions — NU, Penn, New York University, University of California-Berkeley and University of California-Davis.

“Diversity and inclusion rest at the heart of our institutional values and strategic priorities,” said Jabbar Bennett, associate provost for diversity and inclusion, in the release. “President Morton Schapiro has repeatedly identified diversity and inclusion in our community as one of his top priorities.”

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