Case Western Reserve University, Kent State University, the University of Akron, the University of Toledo, Youngstown State University, Bowling Green University and Cleveland State University will collaborate to create the Northern Ohio Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NOA-AGEP): A Racially and Ethnically Inclusive Graduate Education Model in Biology, Chemistry and Engineering (BCE). These alliance schools will also partner with Central State University and Tuskegee University. This project was created in response to the NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program solicitation (NSF 14-505) for the AGEP-Transformation (AGEP-T) track. The AGEP-T track targets strategic alliances of institutions and organizations to develop, implement, and study innovative evidence-based models and standards for STEM graduate education, postdoctoral training, and academic STEM career preparation that eliminate or mitigate negative factors and promote positive practices for underrepresented minorities (URMs). The NOA-AGEP project will develop, implement, and study a model to improve URM student participation, preparation, and success in BCE graduate education, and to prepare them for entry into the professoriate
This AGEP-T project will uniquely contribute to foundational knowledge about the recruitment, retention and graduation of doctoral URMs in BCE. The emphasis on inclusive graduate education, an "umbrella" of supports for graduate students, and extensive diversity training for BCE faculty and staff offers an exceptional opportunity for a regional group of universities with low URM STEM doctoral student enrollment to investigate the promotion of inclusive policies, practices and initiatives. The lessons learned as this project progresses, and the ultimate results from the work, will provide information that will be beneficial to educators, administrators and policymakers, as well as the general public.
