Evolving Higher Education

How can institutional change drive social progress?

An Indigenous person wearing a sport track suit sits legs-crossed on a chair in front of a backdrop.
Writer, educator, and 2022-2023 Mellon Fellow in Residence Natalie Diaz, who directs the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University. Photo: Lelanie Foster for Mellon Foundation

Higher education must be open to and accessible by all. Expanding the landscape at the institutional level is essential to deepening the role that education plays in our society. Through initiatives like improved course offerings, extended research, and growing the next generation of professors, Mellon is dedicated to fostering an exchange of ideas that paves the way for a better human experience.

A person in a navy suit and gray tie and a fedora hat with a brown and gray beard and black shoes sitting beside a lampost on the steps of a columned building
The Regents of the University of California
Proof of Concept at the University of California
Headshot of Leigh Raiford
Leigh Raiford
Co-Director, The Black Studies Collaboratory

UC Berkeley

We’re in a moment where the task of building life-affirming institutions is more urgent than ever.

A Black librarian wearing large hoop earrings sits facing the camera.
Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, Inc.
Archiving Student Activism Means More than You Think

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