David T. Kearns Center
for Leadership and Diversity in Science and Engineering
“Colleges and universities must prepare all segments of the population, if our nation is to stay competitive in basic research and university teaching, as well as in industry.”
—David T. Kearns
About the Kearns Center
David Kearns, former CEO of Xerox Corporation (1982-1990) and Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (1991-1993), is legendary in the world of business and education for promoting diversity in the workplace and a quality education for all Americans. He presents such a strong example of social responsibility that the University has established this Center, both to honor him and to extend his work and vision.
The mission of the David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity in Science and Engineering at the University of Rochester is to expand the pool of individuals who pursue undergraduate and graduate careers in the sciences and engineering. The rationale of the Kearns Center is simple: diversity is integral to the success of American education and research and to the educational mission of the University of Rochester. Productive inquiry takes place when individuals feel free to explore their research questions as equal members of their community, uninhibited by prejudice or discrimination.
The vision of the Kearns Center is one in which students and faculty from across the spectrum of American society fill our science and engineering classrooms and laboratories, their work enlivened by a shared passion for knowledge and a shared sense of social responsibility. This is the legacy of David Kearns’s life and work, as well as the heart of the challenge of Meliora at the University of Rochester, to continue to foster the free exchange of ideas in an ever-more diverse community, for the purpose of advancing knowledge in the service of a free society.