UC AGEP Outreach and Recruitment

UC AGEP partners will initiate outreach to 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.

The goals of UC AGEP’s outreach efforts are to make prospective URM STEM students aware of, and prepared for, the educational opportunities of the University.  The first goal requires that UC AGEP disseminates basic information about resources for URM STEM students and informs students prepared for graduate school about the excellent opportunities offered at UC.  The second goal requires that UC reaches out to undergraduate URM students who might not already be considering graduate education, and help them gain the skills and professional connections necessary to be competitive candidates for admission to UC STEM programs. 

Dissemination of Information — In Phase I, UC AGEP produced promotional materials that assisted UC AGEP Steering Committee members in representing the AGEP-sponsored opportunities open to URM students in all UC schools and in multiple NSF-funded programs.  These materials will be updated.  To reach those STEM students who are more likely to turn to web-based resources for information about graduate opportunities than to print media, UC AGEP will sponsor a new UC AGEP Alliance Website, spearheaded by San Diego, which will provide information for both prospective URM students about graduate opportunities in STEM fields throughout the Alliance.  In addition, the website will provide common recruiting resources for use by UC AGEP personnel at each of the campuses, including a data base of high-prospect URM students.

Summer Research Programs — Phase I of UC AGEP supported URM participation in summer research programs at eight campuses. These programs have been extremely successful encouraging students to go on to graduate and professional schools.  According to Systemwide data, seventy percent of students for whom data was available were attending graduate or professional school three years after participating in a summer program.  The majority of these programs provided mentored research experiences, graduate school preparation via application workshops, and GRE test preparation.  Participants in these programs had the opportunity to become more competitive applicants to graduate programs through laboratory experience, relationships with mentor faculty, and a greater understanding of graduate school and the admissions process.  In Phase II, UC proposes to continue these summer research opportunities, and give priority to students from MSI partner campuses and those who come from primarily teaching institutions.  In this way, the summer research programs will be integrated into an overall recruitment strategy that builds stronger relationships with partner campuses and is sensitive to the importance of expanding its recruiting pool outside research institutions.

Recruitment — 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.

Pre-Application Events. In Phase I, UC AGEP developed two successful pre-application events, the Berkeley Edge Conference and the UCSF Health Science Research Colloquia.  These events brought highly competitive URM students to UC campuses for several days to present research, meet faculty, learn about the admissions process and gain a sense of what graduate education at UC might offer.  UC AGEP II will continue these efforts in Phase

The Berkeley Edge Conference is an annual, invitation-only event, that solicits recommendations for student participants from directors of minority advancement programs for undergraduates, such as Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) and Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP), faculty in STEM departments who are involved in diversity efforts, and Berkeley doctoral alumni who are now serving as faculty at other universities and colleges.  Over the course of Phase I, the number of Berkeley Edge Conference participants who applied, were admitted and enrolled constituted an increasing percentage of new URM STEM graduate students on that campus. For example, of the fifty conference participants in 2002, 31 applied for Fall 2003 admission, 15 were admitted and 10 enrolled, representing 15.9% of total new URM STEM new graduate students.  In 2003, 42 of 50 participants applied for Fall 2004 admission.  We expect that with continued support, the Berkeley Edge Conference will continue to attract the highest caliber of potential graduate students to UC for graduate school.

The UCSF Health Sciences Research Colloquia is a biannual event to interest promising URM undergraduate students in its PhD programs.  Each three-day event brought approximately 25 undergraduates to UCSF.  The colloquia have had significant positive impact on undergraduates’ intention to apply to its PhD graduate programs.  In Phase II, each colloquium will focus on a different theme (e.g., quantitative biology, bioengineering, basic biological sciences, pharmacogenomics, etc). Students will continue to be recruited from a wide range of institutions with a strong focus on HBCU, HSI, and other MSIs.  A new initiative is proposed to invite two directors or faculty leaders of LSAMP, MARC, MBRS, and related programs to attend each of the colloquia with their students in order to provide them with first-hand information and experiences that they can take back to their campuses. The expectation is that these leaders will encourage their students to apply to UC summer programs for undergraduates, future AGEP Colloquia, and to UC for graduate school. 

While both the pre-application events solicit participants from minority serving institutions and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), they are focused on encouraging students who are at a wide range of undergraduate institutions to pursue their graduate education at UC.  UC also recognizes the particular role that baccalaureate colleges and masters' institutions play in preparing URM students who go on to earn doctorates, and in particular the importance of HBCUs in preparing future African American PhDs. UC AGEP II will include two sets of partnerships designed to widen the pool of students from these targeted institutions: the HBCU Partnership and California State University (CSU) Partnership.  Students from these partner MSIs will receive priority in the summer research training programs offered by UC AGEP for undergraduate and masters students.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities(HBCU)Partnership—On July, 16 2004, the first UC-HBCU Partnership Mini-conference was held at the University of California, Santa Barbara with representatives from Howard University, Jackson State University, and four UC campuses (Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Davis and Berkeley).  At this meeting the six campuses agreed to work together to build on existing research collaborations, to establish new collaborations and to create an environment that will continually nurture and expand these linkages.  Beginning from the presumption that science is increasingly collaborative and that cross campus linkages are a regular and natural part of contemporary scientific endeavors, the intention in the UC-HBCU partnership is to increase the probability that these kinds of collaborative efforts will occur within the boundaries of our partnership.  This will be accomplished through several mechanisms. At the Santa Barbara meeting the partner institutions agreed to hold three topical mini-conferences in the coming year (one in computational chemistry, one in nano-technology and one in computer visualization) in order to bring faculty and graduate students from the six campuses together to focus on common research problems.  And, building on a model that has been established through UCSB partnerships with Howard and Jackson State over the last two years, we will also devote resources to encouraging faculty to travel back and forth between the UC and HBCU partner campuses for short visits and broker and encourage the submission of extramural grants between the campuses.  We will also facilitate the flow of students back and forth between these institutions by giving students (especially those who have worked with faculty collaborators) priority in summer research programs, in graduate admissions and postdoctoral research opportunities.

By fostering faculty collaborations and common research interests the UC-HBCU partner institutions expect to expand the flow of African-American students into the professoriate in two ways. First, as the number and density of research collaborations within the partnership continues to increase, we anticipate a more effective recruitment of HBCU students into UC summer programs, graduate programs, post-doctoral positions and faculty appointments.  Second, as UC faculty come to be more closely involved with their HBCU colleagues, we expect to also become more involved with these HBCUs in enhancing the preparation of their students for the professoriate. This will occur indirectly through the development of inter-institutional collaborative research programs as well as directly through the active participation of UC and HBCU faculty as co-mentors to undergraduate students (ensuring that students from all partner campuses are well prepared for graduate education) and as co-mentors of graduate mentors (either as outside members of dissertation committees or as adjunct faculty members).  We will also work to more closely coordinate the flow of PhDs students back and forth between partner institutions into post-doctoral and faculty appointments (through programs such as GRIP, described below).

California State University Partnership - Research institutions currently compete with one another for the most competitive URM STEM students, who are generally from other elite institutions. To expand the applicant pool, institutions must reach out to students who lack information about graduate studies or who otherwise might not apply or enroll for a variety of reasons, including a real or perceived unwelcoming climate.

There is a ready pool of such students in California’s other vast four-year university system: the California State University (CSU) System.  In the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the primary mission of the CSU System is undergraduate education and graduate education through the master's degree only, with particular emphasis on "applied" fields and teacher education.  UC, in contrast, is designated the State's primary academic research institution and is to emphasize both doctoral degree production and other graduate and professional education.  With 23 campuses, the CSU System is one of the largest and most diverse in the country.  In fall 2003, it had 291,030 full-time and 116,500 part-time students, 33.6% of whom (111,136) met the NSF criteria as URM.  The largest underrepresented group in the CSU System is Mexican American, which at 55,701 students, makes up 18% of the total enrollment of the System, followed by African Americans, which at 22,438 students, makes up 7% of total enrollment.

Further, there is empirical evidence that CSU students can excel in UC doctoral programs. UCLA Graduate Division reports that 16% of all new URM master’s students and 21% of all new URM PhD students at UCLA (Fall 1992-2002) came from a CSU campus. Their retention and degree completion compare favorably with the overall population of UCLA graduate students. In addition, six CSUs are among the top 27 baccalaureate institutions of Mexican American science and engineering doctorates. 
 
Because of the large size and geographic distribution of the CSU system and of the importance of developing contact between UC and CSU faculty, UC AGEP II has proposed two levels of activities: one organized by regional sub-alliances of UCs, and another sponsored by individual campuses.  Each sub-alliance consists of five UC campuses, one in the north and one in the south, that use distinctive strategies in hosting and planning events and visits to the CSU campuses in their region.  To increase the impact of AGEP funds, these sub-alliances will share resources and infrastructure.  By fielding activities on multiple levels and allowing differences among the sub-alliances, UC AGEP hopes to identify as set of best strategies for reaching URM students at partner institutions.  Although the CSU campuses will be the primary focus, the sub-alliances may also target other teaching institutions, including other important MSIs (e.g. institutions that produce a significant number of Native American STEM students) and regional private colleges, in their joint recruitment efforts.

The major emphasis of the Northern California sub-alliance is on promoting scientific exchange between faculty and students in UC and those on CSU campuses.  Following an established rotation system, each participating UC campus will undertake two one-day visits per year to one of the northern California CSU campuses (Chico, Fresno, Sacramento, Hayward, Humboldt, San Francisco, San Jose, Sonoma, and Stanislaus), with priority given to those campuses with LSAMP programs.  Each UC campus team, which will include a faculty member, a postdoctoral scholar, and a graduate student, will speak on behalf of all the northern UCs about the advantages of study within the system. Activities during the one-day visit will include:

1. scientific exchange between the UC team and host-institution students who will present their scientific research via a poster session;
2. a scientific talk by the visiting team to demonstrate the collaborative and trans-generational nature of science (faculty, postdoctoral scholar, graduate student);
3. a presentation about the benefits of attending a UC PhD program and UC summer research programs;
4. a discussion of the opportunities and advantages of pursuing an academic research and teaching career.

In addition, UC San Diego will finish the development and implementation of a web-based Diversity Outreach Collaboration Project.  This innovative tool will assist UCSD faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students and staff in recruiting URM students to STEM graduate programs.  Ten faculty and fifteen graduate students will serve as liaisons to MSI’s and special presenters for MSI events.  The Diversity Collaboration Project web site will identify the UCSD liaisons, and provide partner schools with the information they need to contact these individuals and received detailed information about the opportunities for STEM study.  The website will also serve a secondary purpose of documenting collaborative outreach activities. 
 
UC Riverside, which has been recognized by Education Trust as a high performing institution in graduating URM students, will hold specific events for URM masters’ students at local CSU campuses. Riverside will invite students from CSU Northridge, Fullerton, Los Angeles and Bakersfield CSU STEM masters programs to participate in a 3-day clinic to introduce them to life as a doctoral student.  These students typically do not score well in the GREs and need assistance, and often do not want to travel far from their home base for their PhD work. The students will be matched with appropriate labs at UCR, and participate in GRE preparation for one and one half days, a mock PhD qualifying oral exam for one half day, and a final day where they partner with a PhD graduate student in the lab hosting them to experience a “day in the life” of a doctoral student.
 
UC Santa Cruz will sponsor a partnership between the computer science department at San Jose State University and its graduate program in Engineering and Computer Science.  UC Merced will reach out to CSUs in the San Joaquin Valley -- CSU Stanislaus, Fresno and Bakersfield, -- to ensure that its founding faculty are well acquainted with the postsecondary institutions in the region.  UC Davis will continue its visiting days, in which STEM undergraduate students and faculty mentors from CSU Sacramento, Chico, San Francisco and San Jose are invited to meet with UC faculty and graduate students to learn more about research and graduate education opportunities.
 
In addition, UC STEM faculty at each campus will be asked to encourage their alumni who teach at a CSU to nominate STEM students for the California Predoctoral Scholars program.  This one-year program, funded by the California legislature, provides academic-year enrichment opportunities to CSU students who wish to pursue graduate study, with the goal of producing a diverse professoriate for the State.  The program culminates in a summer research experience, usually at a UC campus.  STEM students make up a small percentage of the students nominated for this program.  By encouraging its own alumni to nominate STEM students, UC will increase the exposure of well-prepared CSU students to its graduate programs. Quantitatively, an increase in absolute numbers (and percentage) of URM applicants is expected.  An evaluation of the applicant data will reveal the effectiveness of the various partnerships with MSI and CSUs.   Specifically, encouraging Masters degree students to apply to PhD programs will be fostered by involving them in selective summer programs.  Qualitatively, building strong interactions among UC campuses, MSI and CSUs will result in overall long-term improvements in UC AGEP outreach, recruitment and admission.
 
Admission Increase — Activities are targeted at 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;
4. providing summer enrichment opportunities for newly admitted students.