Lawrence Henschen Northwestern University
SES-0750599 John Hansen University of Chicago
SES-0750656 Charles Halaby Judy Roller University of Wisconsin-Madison
SES-0750630 Robert Kaufman Ohio State University
SES-0750618 Evelynn Ellis Chalandra Bryant Eva Pell Pennsylvania State University
SES-0750612 Aquiles Iglesias Zebulon Kendrick Temple University
SES-0750612 Deborah Richie University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The grant provides continued (three-years) support for the Great Lakes Alliance for Social and Behavioral Sciences (GLASS) Alliance. GLASS is comprised of seven universities--Northwestern University (Alliance lead institution), University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign, University of Chicago, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Wisconsin, and Temple University. The Alliance seeks to broaden the participation of PhD students in the social and behavioral sciences by: (1) engaging in coordinated activities across the seven universities, (2) increasing coordination of activities on each campus, (3) and studying the impact of various techniques on promoting diversity in graduate education. GLASS will focus on increasing the number of minority students enrolled in alliance institutions' graduate programs in the social, behavioral and economic sciences, the establishment of permanent infrastructure on each campus and across alliances to support diversity and a diverse population of graduate students, and the development of a publishable set of techniques and guidelines that can be used by any university and creates a national forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices for promoting diversity in the academy.
The value added of the alliance structure includes: 1) alliance-level activities (e.g., an annual student research conference and the creation of common recruiting materials and coordinated recruiting efforts; 2) recruitment through the implementation of an Alliance Visiting Scholars Program and coordination of recruiting efforts at major conferences, fairs and university visits; 3) increased retention of students due to a cadre of social and behavioral professors and scholars who provide an instant, multi-level mentoring network and enable transition programs; and 4) increased activities and programs targeted at undergraduates in a wider range of universities and colleges to increase the pool of potential graduate students. The number of universities in the alliance also allows the PIs to analyze the effectiveness of new strategies for broadening participation and the transference of existing techniques to new settings.
Broader Impact: The alliance model contribute to creating a diverse graduate education student body and faculty at US colleges and universities. Further the Alliance will develop written materials that can be distributed to all universities in the US could form the basis for a national exchange of ideas about alliances as a strategy to broaden participation in US institutions of higher learning.
A consortium of seven universities, including Temple University, Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, The Pennsylvania State University, The University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of Wisconsin–Madison, collaborated to increase the diversity of doctoral students and, ultimately, the professoriate in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Through the Great Lakes Alliance for the Social and Behavioral Sciences (GLASS), member institutions have engaged in coordinated activities across the seven universities; improved the coordination of activities for recruitment, retention, and graduation of underrepresented doctoral students at each institution; studied the impact of methods and techniques to promote diversity in graduate education; and established an infrastructure to continue the learned best practices. Key elements of the collaboration included hosting Alliance-level professional development/research conferences; establishing a cadre of dedicated faculty mentors to provide a multi-level mentoring network, transitioning networks, and community building; and increasing the pool of qualified undergraduate students to enter graduate programs. Seven social science and economics departments are actively involved in the GLASS Alliance activities to broaden participation of underrepresented students, including Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Economics, Geography and Urban Studies, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. Major Goals Temple University’s four major goals for its institution and the Alliance-partnering universities were to: Formalize the best practices of the mentored summer research program to improve research skills and the credentials of underrepresented student scholars in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Establish an annual graduate student professional development and research symposium not only to provide research and professional development opportunities but also to increase the community among the grant participants and undergraduate and graduate students in the Bridges to Doctorate and MARC programs; doctoral students who are Presidential, University, and Future Faculty Fellows; and doctoral students who have been awarded external fellowships. Provide other professional development and research experiences at and beyond Temple University. Create the infrastructure to continue activities after NSF funding is over. Key Outcomes At Temple University, the mentored summer research program resulted in key outcomes for both doctoral and undergraduate students. Of those working toward a doctoral degree, 14 participants earned their degree; eight participants were elevated to doctoral candidacy; and seven participants reached the preliminary examination stage or passed their exams. Doctoral participants also published 18 papers related to their research. Three undergraduate students entered a doctoral program upon graduation; nine entered a master’s program at other institutions with the intent to enter a doctoral program; and two received their law degrees. The annual graduate student professional development and research symposium has met with great success. It has grown from a group of 81 participants in 2009 to a body of 164 participants in 2012. Between 2009 and 2012, this community of scholars shared 134 poster and oral presentations of their mentored research. Temple University provides further assistance through dissertation "boot camps" at its Writing Center and programs in the Teaching and Learning Center to foster excellence in teaching. Our institution regularly participates in the GLASS Alliance’s professional development and research conferences (both student attendees/participants and faculty workshop leaders/discussants), as well as the professional development activities at the Southern Regional Education Board Compact on Faculty Diversity conferences. The Principal Investigator has been a regular speaker at the Compact on Faculty Diversity conferences for the last four years. In 2011, Temple University established its funded First Summers Research Initiative (FSRI) for underrepresented doctoral students in their discipline across the University in accordance with the grant’s successful mentored summer research program. The FSRI program has grown from 18 underrepresented doctoral students from the social sciences, arts and humanities, biomedical, and STEM fields in 2011 to 29 underrepresented doctoral students in the summer of 2013. Summary Funding for the seven-member consortium known as the Great Lakes Alliance for Social and Behavioral Sciences (GLASS) was initiated in Fall 2005, with Temple University offering its first mentored summer research program for underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences in the Summer 2006. The successes of the mentored summer research program resulted in Temple University establishing its funded First Summers Research Initiative for underrepresented doctoral students in their discipline across the University. Temple actively participates in GLASS Alliance activities and provides further assistance to its underrepresented students through dissertation "boot camps" at the Writing Center, programs to foster excellence in teaching sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Center, and professional development activities through the Annual Graduate Fellows Research Symposia. At Temple University, seven departments are involved in the GLASS Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate in the social, behavioral and economic sciences, including Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Economics, Geography and Urban Studies, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. Success stories of 45 of the student participants in the program are proudly shared on our website at www.temple.edu/grad/agep/summer.htm.
