Creating an environment for diversity in dental schools: one school's approach

Recent reports have indicated the need to improve the diversity in the dental profession's workforce. The enrollment of underrepresented minority students in the nation's dental schools must increase to accomplish this goal. A complex change process within the dental schools is required to prepare schools to enroll a more diverse student body. While each dental school in the United States is unique, a product of its history and institutional culture, and will, therefore, create an environment for diversity in different ways, it is appropriate to describe lessons learned in individual schools as they strive for diversity. The purpose of this paper is to describe how one dental school, the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery, approached diversity, so that appropriate strategies can be shared among schools.