May 30, 2006--Edgar Beckham: A Good Man

Edgar Beckham died last week at age 72. He had been a colleague of mine at the Ford Foundation. When I saw his obituary in the NY Times (linked below), though I was not surprised to learn of his death since he had been quite ill, I was amazed to learn for the first time how old he was. Not that 72 is old anymore, it is decidedly much too young to die, but during the ten years we worked together I always thought he was much, much younger than I because of his physical and intellectual vitality.

There was that vast mind of his—considerably larger than his huge body. The obit doesn’t reflect this, noting blandly that he was the first African-American dean of Wesleyan College, a program officer at the Ford Foundation, former chair of the Connecticut State Board of Education, that sort of good thing.

His death notice reported that he “directed” the Ford Foundation’s Campus Diversity Initiative. To say he directed it doesn’t begin to capture the fact that he conceptualized it, fought for it, and drew into its orbit dozens of colleges and universities of all stripes—from elite liberal arts colleges to open enrollment community colleges. That in itself was not remarkable; after all, dangle money in the form of grants before institutions and you can get them to dance to almost any tune. What is significant was the tune Edgar played that got them dancing.

This was back in the early 1990s when campus or curricular diversity to most meant acting affirmatively when admitting students in order to assure representation within the student body of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Edgar called this the “social justice” reason to diversify enrollments and course offerings—for the sake of equity. To many this sounded a lot like quotas, and as a result those on the political right used the fear of quotas as a very successful wedge issue.

Edgar argued that, yes, equity is important but it is even more important to make the case that diversity is an asset. In our pluralistic society wouldn’t all students benefit by studying at a college that reflects that pluralism? Not just by who sits next to you in a classroom but through the study of diverse cultures? And make that argument Edgar did. So effectively that by the time he left Ford in 1998, the debate was effectively ended. Even the opponents of curricular diversity conceded that the so-called Culture War was over and that campuses had been irremediably reshaped. Much of this thanks to Edgar Beckham’s efforts.

He used his physical vitality to become an advocate for campus change, tirelessly crisscrossing the country, and later the world, to promulgate this agenda. And he also used that physical vitality to just plain have fun! Although he was quite overweight that did not stop him from dancing all night at our program’s retreat just a scant four weeks after having had a kidney removed. I had crawled off to bed by 10:00 and needed to be told by much younger staff that he danced until they began serving breakfast the next morning!