Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in hospitality has been a hot topic lately, with entities across the industry working to promote a workforce that represents the makeup of society.
For the last two years, 36 Cornell University Nolan School of Hotel Administration alumni have come together to develop and fund a program designed to attract more disadvantaged and underrepresented Black and Latino students to study hospitality and tourism. The group calls itself Dedicated Recruitment for Hospitality Educational Equity and Mentorship (DREAM).
Dan Fenton, EVP/director of global tourism and destination development services, JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group, and a member of the group (mostly made of Class of ’81 grads), said that there were several reasons why the group started, including the death of George Floyd in 2020. “That certainly, with some of the members, drove some heightened interest,” he said. “But we also came together as a class and thought about some type of class gift. We really wanted it to be something specific, something intentional.”
What also drove the interest is that upon first coming together, they realized that the Class of ’81 contained six Black students. “We started speaking with a few members of the student body [at Cornell], and it was revealed that in the Class of ’21, there were six Black students in total,” said Stuart K. Smith, SVP, AETHOS Consulting Group and a member of the group. “Of course, the demographics have changed considerably since we were in school. Certainly, there were next to no students from India and no Far East Asian students, but that’s changed dramatically. That was very defining to us.”
The group wanted to do something that was meaningful and something they could track the results of. “We wanted to do it in a way that we could see if it was moving the needle,” said Fenton.
What they found, though, was that it was not as easy to do as they expected. “As much as we believed that it was a fairly straight-ahead goal that we had, it wasn’t as simple as saying to Cornell, ‘We’d like to raise funds around our class, and we’d like to both intentional recruiting and intentional scholarships for the goal of bringing more African-American and Latino students into the hotel school at Cornell,’” said Fenton. “Cornell said to us that the goal we had was not as easy as we thought.”
The group decided to speak with the academic leaders of 23 North American universities to see if they had the same problem. “We found that there was a common theme here, and that was heightened interest from the hospitality education leaders,” he said. “There was not one program that didn’t think this was a critical issue. It was also consistent that there were struggles on how to execute this and how to be intentional.”
These conversations led to the DREAM group partnering with the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University (FIU) to fund The Alliance for Hospitality Equity and Diversity (AHED). The group initially raised $130,000 to seed the program. It will continue to spread to other schools as it grows.
The feedback received from hospitality program educators helped to define the features of the AHED intentional recruiting program, including, among other initiatives, recruiting potential applicants at high schools, community colleges and community centers; meeting with parents to overcome the negative perceptions of the hospitality industry; guiding students and families through the application and financial-aid process; and providing focused scholarships to improve financial accessibility.
“The initial response to the formation of AHED from industry leadership has been overwhelmingly positive, building our confidence that this intentional and focused initiative is long overdue and broadly embraced,” said Michael Cheng, dean, FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. “We thank the DREAM team and recognize that financial support is key in ensuring equity and diversity throughout every level of the hospitality business up to and inclusive of senior leadership and C-suite.”
AHED provides an independent collaborative platform sought by university program leaders. In turn, universities must do their part by providing guidance for those students that meet admission requirements and enroll in hospitality management programs. “Intentionality does not end with the recruitment process,” said Fenton. “Universities must follow through by developing systems designed to ensure the success of Black students as they enter the campus, throughout their academic career, and beyond.”
“The Cornell alumni group is a strong example of authentic commitment, and we believe the results of their actions will enable AHED to produce meaningful change,” said Brian Barker, FIU Hospitality’s first endowed Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) professor and director of AHED. “We commend the DREAM group for their vision and consistent support.
