BLACKSBURG -- Health care may be scientifically based but it is delivered in a social setting. Patients speak different languages, practice different customs and have different ethnic backgrounds.

That's why Dr. Louis Sullivan, the founding dean and president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, is concerned when he hears that doctors aren't as diverse as their patients. Blacks make up about 13 percent of the nation's population but only about 4.6 percent of its physicians, he said.

And it's why Sullivan helped form the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance in 2004 with the goal of increasing diversity in the health care industry. The group is a partnership among the University of Nebraska, Virginia's five historically black colleges and universities, and other Virginia schools, including the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University.

The alliance looks for ways to provide research and academic opportunities for minority students through efforts such as exchange programs and summer research.

On Monday, Sullivan was in Blacksburg to celebrate the addition of Virginia Tech to the alliance. The top research university in the state, Tech is planning a medical school and research institute with Carilion Clinic, which is expected to open in 2010 in Roanoke. Diversity will be high on its priority list, according to Dr. Jim Sherman, associate dean of students at the new school, dubbed the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

"We are desperately interested in having a class that is diverse," Sherman told the group Monday. "It's central to our mission."

Kevin McDonald, Tech's vice president of multicultural affairs, used Monday's occasion to bring together people from Tech and the state's historically black colleges -- Hampton University, Virginia State University, Virginia Union University, Norfolk State University and Saint Paul's College. Tech has struggled to attract black students and faculty, and McDonald saw the possibilities for collaboration to go beyond health and science-related programs at Tech. Workshops and academic tours were scheduled throughout the day Monday and today.

By midday Monday, Joyce Jarrett, provost at Hampton University, was already planning to host faculty from Tech's College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences in July. They hope to continue discussions of faculty and student-exchange programs and collaboration between Tech's human development program and a national center for marriage in Hampton.

Jarrett said she expects there to be at least a draft of an agreement between Hampton and the college by the end of the July visit.

Terry Kershaw, a sociology professor and director of Tech's Center for Africana Studies and Race and Social Policy Research, said joining the alliance shows a commitment to diversity and will improve Tech's image among black students. But Kershaw said the effort isn't just superficial. He said there was "a buzz" around the talks Monday and expects real action and collaboration to quickly follow the meetings.

"We live in a society where race matters, class matters, gender matters. This is an opportunity where race, class and gender can come together and do positive things," he said. "Social change is about building bridges."