Spelman College President Beverly Tatum is one of four college presidents receiving a prestigious national academic leadership award from the Carnegie Corp. of New York on Monday. Tatum, who has been Spelman’s president since 2002, is the first award recipient from a historically black college and university and the first in Georgia.
The foundation noted Tatum’s efforts in championing women in science, technology, engineering and math fields at the college. Between 1997 and 2006, Spelman prepared more African-American women to earn doctorates in STEM fields than Georgia Tech, Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill combined, according to the National Science Foundation.
The award comes with a $500,000 grant to support each honoree’s academic initiatives. Tatum plans to put half of her winnings toward a matching grant to establish an endowed computer science faculty position at the college. The other half will help create an endowed fund, known as the President’s Safety Net Fund, to help fill the financial gap for students in emergency situations who are nearing graduation.
The Carnegie Corp. of New York lauded Tatum’s efforts in increasing community service among college students. Each year, students at the all-female college contribute more than 40,000 hours of service, according to the college.
In another notable initiative, Tatum led the charge last year to drop intercollegiate sports at the college to focus on overall student health. The president took the money saved by eliminating team sports and invested it in fitness and intramural programs.
“I was startled to see that we really had only 80 student athletes out of 2,100 students, and our program was costing almost $1 million,” Tatum told The New York Times at the time. “I was also surprised to learn of studies showing that African-American women are the least physically active demographic in the U.S.”
Presidents at Duke, Arizona State and Stanford universities also are receiving Carnegie Academic Leadership awards this year. Award winners are nominated from previous winners and leaders of national higher education organizations. The annual award recognizes higher education leaders who have excelled in six categories including K-12 education reform and curricular innovation.
Tatum is on the board of trustees for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is operated independently from the Carnegie Corp. of New York.
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