Dr Arnold Mitchem
Honorary Graduate, Doctor of Laws, 2003.
First Executive Director of the now Council for Opportunities in Education (USA).
Welcome by the Public Orator
Vice- Chancellor,
In these days when higher education is measured against an increasing range of yardsticks, one of the more relevant and currently most high-profile is the extent to which an institution is widening its doors, and providing access to its courses to those who previously have been denied by background and lack of resources. In honouring Dr Arnold Mitchem today we are recognising a man who has been prising wide the doors of American universities and colleges for such students for more than 30 years, and whose example, experience and advice has been of direct, and much appreciated, value to us here in Liverpool.
A graduate of the University of Southern Colorado, Dr Mitchem’s career in striving for equality of educational opportunity began in Milwaukee, at Marquette University. His background was in the study of education and, as a Woodrow Wilson scholar of European history at the University of Winconsin. As Director of Marquette’s Educational Opportunity Programme, he was also director of the local TRIO programme. This programme, which was and is federally-funded, grew from the civil rights initiatives of the 1960’s and 70’s and aims to help students to overcome class, social, academic and cultural barriers to higher education. It initially encompassed, as the name suggests, three core components, Talent Search, Upward Bound and Student Support, to deliver those objectives.
Dr Mitchem’s vision, and his commitment over the next 30 years, has been to extend and co-ordinate the TRIO programme, first regionally and then in 1986, nationally, as he moved to Washington to be the first Executive Director of the now Council for Opportunities in Education. The Council, the COE, of which Dr Mitchem is now President, is a co-ordinating organisation, providing mechanisms for networking and sharing of best practice, for lobbying and for developing policy and research. The TRIO programme has provided support for over 870,000 low-income and disabled students through an increasing range of initiatives, including the innovation Robert McNair Post-Baccalaureate Programme, which identifies the brightest students and gives them additional support to prepare them for a career in academia. TRIO students are highly sought after and the maturity of the programme is evident in the support it now receives from its influential alumni. That Dr Mitchem has been pivotal to this success is widely acknowledged, as is his influence on opinion formers and on the ethos within the organisation for communication, ownership of purpose and service to the students. It is difficult to overstate the role that Dr Arnold Mitchem has played in advancing the cause of disadvantaged students in the USA.
The collaboration between Dr Mitchem, COE and Liverpool was stimulated through the European Access Network, on whose executive committee Dr Mitchem now serves. The COE had recognised that opportunities to travel and study abroad, traditionally denied to low-income students, significantly enhance competitive employment prospects. This year sees the third summer school in Liverpool, providing experience that aims to bridge that gap. The programme has been expanded to include TRIO professional staff, to provide in them ‘knowledgeable advocates’ for their students. Opportunities have also been developed for longer periods of study for TRIO students, and, Vice-Chancellor, we are joined today by representatives of the current cohort of TRIO students in Liverpool.
Both TRIO staff and students have also been involved in Liverpool’s innovative Black Roots programme. The sense of history and heritage in that programme is a theme shared by COE and Liverpool and it has provided a catalyst for working together. It seems appropriate that Liverpool, with its difficult historical involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, should be the focus for co-operation in widening participation and opportunity with North American colleagues. We are grateful for the generosity of Dr Mitchem’s collaboration, and for the assistance it gives us in our own ‘Aim Higher’ and ‘First-in-the-Family’ programmes. We recognise and honour today the enormous contribution he has made over many years to the cause of bringing students into Higher Education; students who would not otherwise have had the chance, nor been able to aspire to the opportunities that such education brings.
Vice-Chancellor, in the name of the Senate and the Council I present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in this University, Arnold Mitchem.