The UC Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (UC AGEP) is uniquely poised to increase the number of underrepresented minority (URM) students who enter the professoriate in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In Phase II of UC AGEP, the broader impact of this program will be to increase the number of URM STEM students earning PhDs and becoming optimally prepared for the professoriate. Its intellectual merit lies in its production of new model programs for recruiting, retaining, and graduating URM STEM PhDs and assisting with postdoctoral placements.
The UC system currently produces approximately 10% of the nation.s URM PhDs in the Life Sciences, Engineering and Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Mathematics. In Phase I of its AGEP program, UC AGEP increased URM new STEM enrollment both in real numbers and as a percent of total enrollment. To sustain this gain and increase representation of URMs in the professoriate, UC AGEP Phase II will expand its recruitment and admission efforts while addressing key later components from retention through postdoctoral placements. Specifically, UC AGEP II will implement a six-step program designed to:
1. Increase the number of URM STEM students aware of and prepared for graduate study through dissemination of information about UC AGEP activities and summer enrichment opportunities for undergraduates.
2. Increase the number of URM students who apply to UC campuses and who are considered for admission to the University through pre-application events, partnerships with minority serving institutions (MSIs) such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), partnerships with California State Universities and summer programs for masters students.
3. Increase both the number of URM students who are admitted, and the number who choose to accept offers through: 1) targeting interactions and assistance to admission committees; 2) increasing opportunities for campus visits; 3) increasing communication with admitted students; and 4) providing summer enrichment opportunities for newly admitted students.
4. Impact the early academic experience of URM graduate students and improve their retention by creating community networks, improving faculty mentoring, and enhancing students. skills for coping with academic hurdles such as the qualifying exam.
5. Support continuing URM graduate students through programs that improve their professional and academic skills, and prepare them for postdoctoral positions and the academic job market.
6. Create new models for increasing URM access to and participation in postdoctoral scholar positions, thereby ensuring their competitiveness for academic positions.
UC AGEP Phase II expects project outcomes to include increased URM awareness of UC STEM fields, better preparation of applicants, increased URM numbers (and percentages) for application and matriculation, increased retention, a decreased time to degree, and better access to postdoctoral positions. Thus, over the next five years, UC AGEP II should result in a significant increase in URM PhDs who graduate from UC programs and enter the professoriate. Also, by comparison of best practices, the UC AGEP infrastructure will foster the building of networks and models for diversity interventions that will persist after the grant period ends.
for UC Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate DIGSSS Supplement Award: From 2004 to 2011, the UC-DIGSSS Alliance, comprised of three campuses—UCB, UCLA, and UCSB-- received funding from the National Science Foundation to launch a pilot program to broaden the participation of underrepresented students in the Social, Behavioral, and Economics sciences. As top producers of underrepresented minority undergraduate and graduate students in the social sciences, the three-campus alliance pioneered a program for the recruitment and retention of URM graduates in SBE which would have broader impact far wider than the individual campuses involved on several fronts. The Graduate Diversity Coordinator (GDC) is a heuristic, sustainable model first implemented by DIGSSS Alliance. This full-time, permanent staff position dedicated his or her time to increasing the recruitment and retention of URM students. This model was adopted by a majority of other SBE/NSF campuses which have since joined the national alliance involved in broadening the participation of graduate students in the social sciences. The GDC played an active role not only in the recruitment of students but also, working jointly with departments, in reviewing and evaluating URM students for admission. The Alliance also proposed a more collaborative and a student-centered model for recruiting students by sharing prospective student contacts with member institutions of the national SBE/NSF alliance. Students’ basic academic information along with their research interest and contact information were sent to all the SBE personnel at the twenty-three campuses. With regard to recruitment efforts, the Alliance established the Domestic Exchange Program with HBCUs Spelman College and Morehouse College. Students interested in pursuing graduate studies in the social sciences were selected to attend UC Berkeley for a semester as exchange students. Additionally, the Alliance relied on alumni contacts at various MSIs including the California State University campuses to recruit students. The Alliance also worked closely with professional academic associations, the McNair Scholars, the Mellon Mayes (MMUF) scholars, the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers (IRT), and other bridge programs to recruit students. On the retention front, participants received professional development training upon entering their 3rd or 4th year at the alliance sponsored research symposium. Such a venue allowed students to network across campuses, diffuse what Claude Steele calls "stereotype threat," share their research, and receive helpful feedback from peers and faculty. Those needing assistance in statistical skills attended a summer statistics institute. Participants also attended many other professional development workshops and some received funding by way of conference support, faculty-mentored research awards, or summer researchships. Retention of URM students at these three institutions during the funding period was much higher than those of the national average. The key intellectual merit of UC-DIGSSS lies in the underlying premise that improving access and the success rate of URM students in graduate program leads to a transformed culture of the academy, one that is able to better deliver tools of analysis and new production of knowledge that is in keeping with evolving needs of a global society.
