The Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP) will implement a variety of innovative and proven strategies for the recruitment, admission, retention and preparation for faculty positions of underrepresented minority graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). For the past five years, a number of these strategies were developed and evaluated by the faculty at five Alliance (University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey) and five Partner (Jackson State University, Lincoln University, Long Island University, Medgar Evers College and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez) Institutions. NEAGEP will be expanded and enhanced by the addition of the five other major land-grant universities in the Northeast (the Universities of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) into the Alliance. Two new Partner Institutions, Bennett College and, beginning in the second year of the new funding cycle, Trinity College, will also join NEAGEP. Together, the New England Land-Grant Universities bring to NEAGEP the resources of 6,000 faculty members, a half-billion dollars in annual sponsored research, connections to 26 additional minority-serving (predominantly African American and Hispanic) institutions and access to the growing Native American population in northern New England. Building upon the foundation laid and the experience gained in the past five years, this expanded Alliance will more effectively coordinate efforts to match graduate students' interests and skills with a broad range of graduate programs. It will also create a critical mass of minority graduate students with similar research interests. To address the national shortage and increase the number of underrepresented STEM minority doctoral students, NEAGEP proposes the following strategies:
Recruitment: (a) design a common supplementary NEAGEP application; (b) facilitate faculty involvement in Diversity Teams; (c) revise practices in summer research programs; (d) continue fall recruiting weekends; (e) ensure multi-institutional presence at national meetings; (f) invite Partner faculty to research residencies at Alliance Institutions; (g) hold Partner Science Days at Partner Institutions;
Admissions: (a) initiate Rapid Response contacts; (b) involve NEAGEP graduate program directors; (c) expand NEAGEP Research Internships; (d) offer NEAGEP first and last year research assistantships;
Retention: (a) participate in the Graduate School mentoring grant competition; (b) offer mentoring workshops; (c) set up mentoring website; (d) rotate NEA Day among Alliance Institutions;
Future faculty preparation: (a) integrate teaching and research preparation for underrepresented minority STEM graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; and (b) offer career counseling and placement assistance.
Not all strategies will be undertaken by all institutions, but all will embark on some activities in each area and take part in cross-cutting initiatives such as: (a) implementation of a NEAGEP-wide Networking Group; (b) expansion of the NEAGEP office structure and functions; (c) execution of NEAGEP-wide sharing of admissions information; (d) establishment of joint Partner-Alliance doctoral programs; and (e) participation in an Alliance-wide comprehensive evaluation.
Intellectual Merit: The NEAGEP strategies proposed are both innovative and transferable. The underlying principle is that they are faculty-driven and championed by the administration. Implementation of these strategies will advance fundamental cultural change in academia and promote the success of underrepresented minority students in STEM doctoral programs. The prior success with the Alliance structure provided the impetus for the logical extension of activities to the neighboring New England Land-Grant Universities. By extending the Alliance activities to this group, hundreds more underrepresented minority STEM students and beginning faculty will benefit.
Broader Impact: The number of U.S. citizens applying for graduate study in STEM disciplines is inadequate to meet the growing national needs in these areas. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the number of international graduate students applying to STEM graduate programs has decreased by over 30% nationwide this year. The number of U.S. STEM scientists needs to be increased if this country is to remain competitive on the world stage. The fundamental, and most important, impact of this program will be to create an environment in which minority persons can succeed in the STEM disciplines in the U.S. The proposed efforts will lead to the successful recruitment, admission and retention of a diverse group of graduate students and will encourage these students to pursue careers in the professoriate.
The NSF funding provided by this grant facilitated the development of the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP), a highly interactive group that has now been institutionalized through the STEM Diversity Institute of UMass Amherst. NEAGEP consists of ten Research Intensive Alliance Institutions (UMass Amherst, Boston University, MIT, Penn State University, Rutgers University and the Universities of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) and five minority-serving Partner Institutions (Bennett College, Jackson State University, Lincoln University, Medgar Evers College and the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez). These institutions share the goal of increasing the number of underrepresented minorities (URMs) who obtain STEM Ph.D. degrees. During the past six years of funding (Phase 2 NEAGEP), we piloted and instituted a number of initiatives designed to recruit, retain and graduate students. Many of the strategies were shared across institutions and we continue to pilot new initiatives. Our continuing synergistic and collaborative activities include: 1) Partner Science Days at minority-serving institutions; 2) Partner Faculty summer sabbaticals at Alliance Institutions; 3) annual multi-institutional data collection; 4) grant collaborations; 5) annual meetings for sharing best practices; 6) shared website to advertise research opportunities for undergraduates; and 7) shared Facebook account to facilitate networking among our students across institutions. In addition to developing a sustainable alliance, since 2005-06 we substantially increased the number of students from underrepresented groups who enrolled in and completed PhD degrees in STEM disciplines. Enrollment and the number of earned PhD degrees doubled to a current enrollment of over 800 doctoral students and 80 earned PhD degrees in 2012-13.
