The Alliance for Graduate Education in Mississippi (AGEM) proposes to continue and expand its comprehensive, state-wide consortial program for enhancing the entry into and successful completion of minority students in STEM1 graduate programs. AGEM will continue to be led by the University of Mississippi (UM) and will involve the three other Ph.D. granting universities in the state2 and informal partnerships with several regional colleges (including several HBCUs3). The program will build upon the solid accomplishments of the first round of funding and on the record of collaboration between institutions. Because the population of Mississippi is 37% African-American and because there are several HBCUs in this region, a primary focus of AGEM is the training of African-American graduate students, with an emphasis on preparing these students for academic careers in STEM areas. UM has made a major commitment to increasing the access of its graduate programs to minority students. UM, working with its partnering institutions, has aligned resources and has coordinated the current partnership to create a comprehensive approach to the recruitment, mentoring, retention, and degree completion of minority students, with counseling aimed at encouraging academic careers. Thus the entire program addresses the broader impacts imperative of the NSF AGEP program.
The specific goal of the first five-year grant was to triple the number of minority students who received STEM doctoral degrees (triple, as compared to the previous five-year baseline) from the four doctoral-degree granting institutions in the state. From our baseline of 13 minority STEM PhDs produced from 1993-1997, the AGEM program has seen an increase to 48 minority STEM doctoral graduates produced from 1998-2003. Another goal of the AGEM program was to bring about a systemic change in attitudes of faculty, administrators, and students with regard to minority pipeline issues. Evidence is presented for such systemic changes. The current five- year program has made a significant start toward enhancing minority student success in STEM graduate education. Continuation of the mission is imperative. A thorough analysis of programmatic successes, as well as an analysis of those academic disciplines where more can be done, has been conducted. New strategies will be presented to address targeted areas.
The intellectual merit criterion of NSF is met via the research produced by the students as they pursue their degrees, by the future research produced by these doctorates when they enter the professoriate or other research positions, and by our studies of the factors that lead to success for underrepresented minorities.
(AGEM) has been and remains a consortium of the five doctoral granting institutions in the state, with the University of Mississippi (UM) Oxford campus serving as the lead institution. The partnering institutions are Mississippi State University (MSU), the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), Jackson State University (JSU), and the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). The several small colleges and historically Black colleges and universities in Mississippi and the mid-South serve as informal feeder institutions. The purpose of the alliance is to enhance the success of minority students in pursuing doctoral degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, to encourage these individuals to take academic positions, and to bring about systemic changes in attitudes of students, faculty, and administrators with regard to minority access issues. Key outcomes of this project have been The AGEM institutions have graduated 80 minority PhDs between 2007 and 2013; this level of production is more than a tripling of the rate of minority PhD production in STEM fields prior to implementing the program. Over 32 of these PhD graduates have taken university/college level academic positions, with at least 17 being in postdoctoral positions; that is, approximately half of the graduates have or will take academic positions. Greater cooperation between the four institutions has been established, notably in terms of an annual symposium that is rotated between campuses and various shared student enrichment activities. Throughout our program we have carried out a variety of programs aimed at improving the general support for minority graduate students on our campuses. These have included social, academic, student support, informational, and policy directed activities. The clearest way to demonstrate a systemic change that has occurred has been the results of an assessment study performed on students and faculty at the beginning of our AGEP program and near the end of the program. Out of 20 questions asked of these two groups about attitudes and the campus environment in support of minority doctoral student, 19 of these questions were answered more positively at the end of the program. We have been pleased with the success of the AGEP program, both in terms of the number of minority PhD students in STEM fields who have graduated and are following academic tracks, and in the campus environmental changes that have been fostered by the program.
