The Ohio Science and Engineering Alliance is a coalition of fifteen universities working together with federal, state, and community agencies1. It will significantly enhance the STEM infrastructure within Ohio and will serve as a catalyst for change, innovation, and resource enhancement throughout the state. The primary goal and broad impact of the Alliance is to double the number of underrepresented minority students who earn bachelor.s degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and to significantly increase the number who pursue graduate study in these fields. This goal will be accomplished through the integration of new and existing campus-based and statewide programs; the monitoring of student progress through their undergraduate degrees and beyond; and the promotion of the Alliance to students, their parents, faculty, and the general public. The Ohio Alliance will focus on a comprehensive series of effective recruitment and retention initiatives that address key transition points from undergraduate recruitment through preparation for graduate school. These transitions include:
A. Transition to College . Effective Coordination and Quality Programming; B. First-Year and Beyond Student Programming; C. Research Experiences for Rising Juniors and Seniors; and D. Professional Development for Students, Faculty, and Staff.
NSF funds will be used to support Alliance-wide initiatives (e.g., cooperative recruitment, research internships, professional development, Alliance Forum) as well as individual campus-based programs (e.g., mentoring, bridge programs, tutoring, supplemental instruction, drop-in centers, workshops). Research faculty will continue to be involved in program planning and will play an active role in the selection of student participants, matching students with their research projects, mentoring, and assessing the quality of individual student performance. STEM students who receive competitive funding will be referred to as Glenn-Stokes Scholars. Ohio State University will serve as the lead institution on behalf of the Alliance, and President Karen Holbrook, a research scientist herself, will serve as the principal investigator and chair of the Governing Board. Together with the Board, Steering Committee, and research faculty, she will provide intellectual leadership to the Alliance. The co-PI, Susan Huntington, Dean of the Graduate School, will provide its organizational home. The project director, Jean Girves, has served as the associate director of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) for fifteen years, where she coordinated and raised funds for numerous collaborative projects among the 12 member institutions, including the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) for minority students, the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Initiative, and the Graduate Minority Fellows program. In 2000, she accepted the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring on behalf of the SROP.
