She approached the S.C. Commission on Higher Education about obtaining a grant. She also is looking to foundations and philanthropists that support teaching initiatives. Meanwhile, Pigford said, reaction and support from colleagues and administrators is heartening. USC departments within the College of Liberal Arts and other S.C. public colleges have indicated they might contribute toward the stipend pool she's trying to build, she said. Most colleges, for legal and philosophical reasons, are reluctant to make such guarantees to the students they train.
Schools generally prefer to draw faculty from a variety of institutions.
Pigford thinks she has a solution to sidestep those concerns. She said she has an agreement with the Compact for Faculty Diversity, an organization in Atlanta that recruits minorities and helps them find universities where they can do doctoral work. The compact organizes annual seminars for roughly 250 minority graduate students where colleges and universities send recruiters to look for the next generation of professors. Thanks to Pigford's efforts, Abraham said, USC is welcome to participate in those sessions. Copyright 1996-1998 City College of San Francisco.