ATS supports racial/ethnic faculty and administrators in theological schools and helps schools to enhance their capacity to meet the needs of diverse racial/ethnic communities in North America. ATS provides venues for gathering and supporting racial/ethnic faculty and administrators and facilitates mentoring networks among these constituents. It also helps schools develop greater capacity to educate students more effectively for ministry in multicultural contexts and realize the benefits of increasing racial/ethnic diversity in the schools.

Consultations

During the 2009–2013 grant cycle, ATS will invite four cohorts of nine schools each to participate in a series of two consultations and engage in some institutional work between them. Each cohort will consist of a team of three persons from each school, which must include the president and/or dean. The initial consultation will have two major elements. The first will be content presentations about shifting demographic realities and effective strategies used in other institutions. The second will be work with a coach on the analysis of individual institutional contexts and goals and development of a process to address diversity within individual institutions. Potential points of entry to these process discussions include faculty culture, reframing teaching and learning, understanding race and ethnicity, visa cultural orientation, and conflict resolution. Each school team will identify an area of work that holds greatest promise, develop an action plan, and pursue that plan following the gathering.