AGEP PROJECT PROFILE INFORMATION:

“NO LONGER A DREAM DEFERRED: Greater Minority STEM Participation Through Academic Opportunity and Institutional Change”

PI: Provost Charlena Seymour Office of the Provost, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA 01003; cseymour@provost.umass.edu; 413-545-6223	Program Coordinator / Director: Professor Sandra L. Petersen, Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA 01003; sandyp@bio.umass.edu; 413-545-1808
Preferred day-to-day contact person: Terry DiGiacomo; alliance@resgs.umass.edu; 413-577-6210	Primary Partners: Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers—The State University of New Jersey Secondary Partners: Lincoln University, Long Island University, Medgar Evers College, Jackson State University, University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez

Disciplines / departments:

Participating STEM departments are:

· College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics: Astronomy, Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geosciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics, Polymer Science and Engineering

· College of Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research

· College of Natural Resources and the Environment: Animal Science, Entomology, Food Science, Forestry and Wood Technology, Microbiology, Plant and Soil Sciences, Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation

· School of Public Health and Health Sciences: Exercise Science and Food Science

· Interdisciplinary Programs: Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience and Behavior, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Plant Biology

Website address: http://www.umass.edu/gradschool/AGEP/

Impact nugget:

Using mechanisms appropriate for the unique mixture of private and public institutions in our alliance, the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP), identified and attracted qualified minority applicants. Our record of achievement includes:

1) More than doubled the number of underrepresented minority applications to STEM doctoral programs over the past three years.

2) Established a central NEAGEP office in the graduate school. The office has helped to identify qualified minority applicants and to facilitate their acceptance into STEM programs. For example at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, while 27% of minority students were accepted overall, those minority STEM students in contact with the NEAGEP office before submitting the application were accepted at a rate of 43%. The office maintains a website and helps to link LSAMP and NEAGEP activities.

3) Increased application and enrollments at summer research programs. Two new summer research programs, one at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA) and the other at Boston University (BU) had positive trajectories. The number of applicants for the summer program at UMA increased by over 4-fold (20 to 87) during the four years of the program. At BU the number of applicants over four years increased from 7 to 114.

4) Increased enrollments by 30% to STEM doctoral programs. Over the past three years over 20% of the summer research participants at UMA applied to its graduate school in STEM disciplines; while Penn State boasts that 70% of the summer research opportunity program students go on to graduate school.

5) Increased the number of faculty participants in recruiting and retention efforts in the past four years by 60% from 20-120. At the UMA fall recruiting weekend the number of institutions sending faculty and or minority students increased from 7 at the first event to 25 in 2003. Over 15% of the students who attended this event applied to one or more NEA institutions.

Established research collaborations with STEM partner institutions. A new joint Ph.D. program between the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMA and the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez was approved.

Statement:

As a result of these successful projects, faculty, students and the administration have become enthusiastic partners with the NEAGEP sharing resources and ideas in a systematic process.