This proposal outlines a detailed plan by the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) to recruit, and train 32 students as future faculty in higher education institutions, and to provide two 8-week summer-readiness programs for 40 students, to encourage and prepare them for admission to graduate school. This program, entitled the MU Minority Graduate Education Project (MU-MGE) provides a unique opportunity for us to consolidate and coordinate on-going programs designed to recruit and train talented underrepresented students, and several programs that offer unique enrichment or development services to students at MU. Equally important, it will enable us to implement innovative program activities, some previously-discussed and others designed specifically for this project, and to institutionalize those that are effective. The program will provide a model for how large research institutions, such as MU, can provide the necessary components to advance the career goals and opportunities for underrepresented minorities to enter the professorate in higher education institutions.
The MU-MGE project described here will have a total budget of $5,423,872, with $2,401,784 requested from NSF, and $3,022,088 in cost-sharing by the University of Missouri-Columbia. The plan includes requesting funding from NSF to support the future faculty participants during the first two years, with MU providing supplemental funding during this time, and then MU providing support to them for the remaining three years for a total of five years of support for each. In addition, funding for administrative costs--a Project Manager, Recruitment/Retention/Career Planning Specialist, Secretary and 17 Graduate Assistants--is requested from NSF plus some modest funding to support the 8-week summer readiness program and miscellaneous other costs such as supplies, telephone, travel, and publications to advertise the project during recruitment and to disseminate information about it once NSF funding terminates.
Because MU is committed to continuing the project by assuming responsibility for financing the project for four additional years beyond the five-years supported by NSF, this project will continue beyond the NSF funding period. It is our expectation that additional internal and external funding will be found to expand the program offerings and the time period even beyond the total nine-year commitment of MU.
This project includes an ongoing evaluation system of every program offering and continual monitoring of student progress. With the collection and careful evaluation of such detailed data this will enable us to make necessary adjustments as needs arise, and especially for improving the program offerings from year to year. It will provide an opportunity for MU to coordinate the efforts for the MU-MGE project with those of many others on campus, and to collaborate in developing new offerings with other program officers. And through the Visiting Faculty Development component, relationships will be developed by these participants and MU faculty with faculty from minority-serving institutions. These changes, in campus climate and expanded relationships, will ensure even greater success with MU's efforts to advance the opportunities for underrepresented minorities to obtain doctoral degrees and to become future faculty.
