By the end of this year, Stanford University will end its long-running Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence (DARE) Doctoral Fellowship Programme.
The decision ends a 17-year effort to increase diversity in academia and coincides with changes in federal policy and funding cuts for the entire university.
The Stanford Daily was able to receive a statement stating that the DARE programme will be replaced by a new graduate fellowship that will begin in the fall of 2026.
Ken Goodson, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, and Anika Green, DARE Director and Assistant Vice Provost for Graduate Education, announced the change in a May email to faculty and administrators.
DARE was founded in 2008 and offered two-year fellowships to advanced PhD candidates whose presence would contribute to the professoriate's diversity.
The programme has provided financial support, mentorship, and professional development through seminars, faculty projects, and recruiting trips to 374 fellows since its launch.
Underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities, first-generation college students, women in professions like engineering and the natural sciences, LGBTQ+ students, and those with disabilities are all included in DARE's broad definition of diversity.
The final group to receive fellowship support was the 2023–2025 DARE cohort, whose award was shortened to a one-year period.
According to The Stanford Daily, the decision to close DARE followed the US Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), which overturned race-based affirmative action in higher education.
Following the verdict, DARE was no longer allowed to consider race or ethnicity when selecting fellows, dramatically changing its criteria.
In his statement, Goodson wrote that the shift was also driven by a “substantial reduction in general funds” to the Vice Provost for Graduate Education’s office.
He added that Stanford aimed to “learn from the outstanding trajectory of DARE while evolving to new programmes that can run on a lower budget while having the maximum positive impact.”
