Prior Results

The UC System is a major contributor to the national pool of URM PhDs in the natural sciences. 
UC Berkeley is the nation’s largest producer of both PhDs in general and URM doctoral students in particular. Taken together, the UC campuses are responsible for almost 10% of the PhDs earned by U.S. citizens and permanent residents in these fields, and 10% of the URM doctorates in STEM nationwide.

In Phase I, UC AGEP was an alliance of nine campuses of the UC System.  Three institutions (Berkeley, Irvine and San Diego) received greater funding as direct grantees, under the Minority Graduate Education Program funded by NSF.  Berkeley’s program was titled “The Berkeley Edge”, (HRD-9978896), Irvine’s “The Fast Track to the Professoriate”(HRD-9978897), and San Diego’s “Comprehensive Minority Graduate Education Project” later renamed “Minority Access to Science Engineering and Mathematics” (HRD-9978892). The effective date of these grants was October 1, 1999. The six other UC participant institutions (Davis, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz) received lesser funding, as subcontractors to the UC Office of the President (UCOP) AGEP grant titled “UC Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate” (HRD-004252001).  The effective date of this grant was October 1, 2000.  UC Merced, the newest UC campus, received no funding.

Because Ph.D. production takes many years, the primary measure of quantitative gains in program effectiveness during UC AGEP Phase I is graduate enrollment.  The number of new doctoral URM enrollees in the natural sciences increased from the baseline established in the Phase I application (average new graduate enrollment from the 1997-1999 academic years) of 150 to 261 in the fall of 2003, an increase of 74%.  (During this time non-minority enrollment increased 61.5%).  URM enrollees also made gains as a percent of total student enrollment in this period, increasing from 7.4% to 8.5%. 

This increase was especially encouraging given that the UC campuses were still struggling to manage the impact of anti-affirmative action policies associated with California Proposition 209 (whose implementation had begun in fall of 1997, just two years before the inception of AGEP funding to the UC system).  Indeed, in many ways the progress of the UC-AGEP initiatives are arguably more significant precisely because they reflect the hard won gains of programs that have been sculpted to withstand the more rigorous scrutiny of California's post 209 diversity policy environment. 

Other measures of success can also be identified.  Phase 1 produced a number of innovative new program initiatives, some of which (described below) have proven to be notably successful models for change.  One particular success of the UC-AGEP was the fashioning of a highly effective organizational structure for managing Alliance level exchange and decision-making (discussed further in the Program Management Section). The current proposal is a case in point.  The result of more than a year of discussion and debate, the mix of new programs and extensions of existing models presented here reflects a complex process of internal review and critique.

Baseline Information

Extensive baseline data is provided in the appendix to this proposal, including seven years worth of data showing:

A sample of this data is below.  It shows general themes that will be addressed by UC AGEP II: the low representation of URM students as a percentage of total undergraduate and graduate STEM students (as reflective of the national pattern), lower rates of retention of URM graduate students in the life sciences, physical sciences and math and lower completion of the PhD.  In order for the momentum of increased URM graduate enrollment to be realized as a contribution to the professoriate, UC AGEP II will improve graduate persistence and retention and ensure that its PhD recipients have the requisite skills, experience, and opportunities to make them competitive to win academic jobs.

Proposed Activities and Anticipated Outcomes

In Phase I, the UC AGEP programs differed significantly in the level of campus funding, grant start date, and the activities offered at each campus.  In Phase II, UC AGEP will continue to adopt a broad range of program configurations reflecting the specific needs and inclinations of each campus.  However, there will also be a much higher level of consistency in program offerings as a result of the dissemination of best practices within the alliance.  At the same time, a number of new program initiatives are proposed here to address the problems of retention and PhD completion. Other programs are proposed to more fully address the transition from the PhD to the post-doctoral stage of students' career trajectories and to insure that AGEP students will have the requisite skills, experience, and opportunities to make them more competitive in the academic job market.

UC AGEP II will create a structured series of program initiatives that span the pathway to the professoriate from developing a pool of qualified undergraduates through to assisting with placements into postdoctoral researcher positions.  The following schematic shows the six steps we envision on the educational pathway from the undergraduate career through to the professoriate. Under each of these steps appear the activities proposed by UC AGEP II to pursue these goals.

While not every activity will be implemented at each campus, each campus will have funding for its most pressing problems and promising programs.  Together, through UC AGEP II, the campuses will produce a comprehensive series of models that will advance current thinking and practice on diversifying the professoriate.

Step 1 Outreach 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.  Some of Step 1 (outreach), Step 2  (recruitment), and Step 3 (admission) activities overlap, but are separated here to aid presentation. 

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.

The expected outcomes of step one are measurable.  The expected result of step 1 program activities are that more minority students learn about graduate opportunities at UC campuses.  This can be evaluated by the number of “hits” to the Alliance website and by chronicling the increased number of student contacts made during visits to MSIs and California State campuses (described in Step 2).  The result of goal 2, to increase applicant preparedness for graduate study, is met by the continued success of the summer programs, and increased participation of students from partner schools.

Step 2 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 II.

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; and 4) a discussion of the opportunities and advantages of pursuing an academic research and teaching career. The unique aspect of this innovative campus visitation program is the emphasis on scientific exchange between faculty at both institutions, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students. 

The major emphasis of the Southern California sub-alliance is to provide the maximum number of CSU students with crucial information about how to apply to graduate school, and expose them to faculty and staff from the all Southern California UC campuses.  This sub-alliance builds upon a range of successful outreach events developed by Los Angeles with its CSU neighbors over the last three years, and is based on its research about graduate students who received their bachelors’ degrees from the CSU system.  The Southern California sub-alliance will hold a series of one-day graduate information and recruitment conferences on CSU campuses, UC campuses, and other institutions.  UC faculty and graduate students will present workshops on topics such as how to select, apply to and prepare for graduate school, how to finance graduate education, and keys to success and survival in graduate school.  All sub-alliance institutions will participate in each one-day event and other research and recruitment visits with the CSUs, MSIs, and other local institutions.  In addition, the Southern California
sub-alliance will provide incentives to faculty for participating in ongoing outreach activities at CSUs. 

Individual UC campuses and departments will also initiate activities with specific CSU departments based upon intellectual affinity, potential for sending URM students to graduate school, geographic proximity, the existence of prior collaborative arrangements and the presence of UC alumni on the faculty.  For example, UC San Diego will continue to work with CSU Long Beach, CSULA, CSU Northridge, CSU Dominguez Hills, CSU Fullerton, and San Diego State University to expand and strengthen the successful partnerships developed and implemented as part of Phase I.  UC San Diego will also increase the number of CSU partnerships and include ten other MSIs as partners in Phase II. 

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. 

The outcomes of Step 2 activities can be assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively.  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.  

Step 3 Admission 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;
4. providing summer enrichment opportunities for newly admitted students.

Targeted interactions with Admission Committees:  One goal of UC AGEP II is to ensure that URM applicants receive a thorough and fair review of their applications during admissions decisions.  In Phase I, the Berkeley Edge used professional Diversity Coordinators in each STEM academic field to work directly with admissions committees so that URM applications were fully considered.  These Diversity Coordinators report directly to the STEM academic deans, and so are well-placed with the existing academic structure to assist admissions committees. In Phase II, two additional campuses will hire Diversity Coordinators, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, who will work closely with admissions committees, and in addition to other significant outreach, recruitment and retention activities. 

Another campus, UCSF, will use its existing capacity for institutional research to improve the quality of application review by admissions committees by helping faculty reviewers seek out the best and most important evidence for assessing the potential for student success.  It will also increase the accuracy, availability, and timeliness of data about the past three years of PhD applicants and their application success rate and systematically communicate this information to departments. The goal of this intervention is to increase the rate of URM students admitted to PhD programs who subsequently enroll at the pilot campus (In 2001, UCSF accepted 90% of URM students interviewed; 50% of accepted students enrolled).  If this program is successful in increasing the percentage of URM applicants who are offered admission and enroll, it will be documented as a best practice for future UC AGEP activities.

Opportunities for Campus Visits:  UC AGEP will increase the number of URM students who matriculate at UC, by ensuring applicants are well acquainted with prospective department faculty and resources.  Accordingly, four campuses will use UC AGEP funds to provide opportunities for admitted URM students to visit a campus before accepting offers of admission.

Increased Communication:  In Phase II, UC AGEP will also pilot a program at one campus, UCSF, to increase the number of admitted URM students who choose to attend UC.  This program will operate on two levels.  On the applicant level, the “Preapplication Review and Recruitment” (PARR) program will:  (1) improve the admissions-process experience for URM students through increased communication with applicants; (2) ensure that sufficient contact by faculty is made with applicants, especially those who have had no prior (or minimal) contact with UCSF; and (3) guarantee that every qualified URM applicant has an opportunity to visit UCSF.  UCSF AGEP staff will help facilitate a correspondence between applicants and prospective peer mentors in their department/program.  In addition, prospective students may be offered a place in a pre-enrollment summer admissions program as an incentive for matriculating at UCSF.  On the Department level, the PARR program will conduct follow-up interviews with applicants and faculty admissions committees at the end of the process to determine the most important factors in applicant decision-making. This information will be disseminated to the faculty. The program will leverage the capabilities of the UCSF Student database to identify all URM applicants to UCSF PhD programs and track each step of their progress through the graduate application process.  It is expected that these efforts to improve and track the admissions process for URM graduate students will yield best practices of national interest.

The expected outcome of Step 3 is an increase in the number of URM students choosing to attend UC campuses.  Better communication with admissions committees will benefit our efforts to increase diversity.  Offering financial help to bring URM students to campus for interviews, and to offer a pre-enrollment summer enrichment program should also positively impact URM applicants advancement from admitted to matriculated students.

Step 4 Early Career Impact the early academic experience of URM graduate students and improve their retention by improving faculty mentoring, creating community networks, and enhancing students’ skills for coping with academic hurdles such as the qualifying exam.

Improving Faculty Mentoring:  UC AGEP II will help faculty develop the skills necessary to be good mentors.  Although proper mentoring is important to every graduate student, it is particularly germane to the retention of graduate students from underrepresented groups. In UC AGEP II, several campuses will offer workshops to assist faculty in becoming more effective mentors. 

UC AGEP II has the opportunity to help establish an inclusive community “from the ground up” at its newest campus, UC Merced.  Merced hopes to inculcate its founding faculty, prior to the arrival of the first full cohort of students in the fall of 2005, into a culture that values strong mentoring skills.  Faculty mentoring will be particularly important at this campus, because its graduate education will be organized around multidisciplinary groups that transcend the boundaries of its Schools and may thus lie outside the realm of typical support services that bolster discipline-based graduate programs.  Much of the responsibility for student support and mentoring must become the domain of Merced’s faculty and researchers. In addition, because of Merced’s location in the San Joaquin Valley, an area of California with no one majority ethnic group, and low rates of educational attainment, Merced is expected to attract a significant population of students who are both first generation college students and members of groups underrepresented in higher education as either students or faculty members. 

UC AGEP II at Merced will accomplish two objectives: 1) provide its faculty and staff with an in-depth understanding of the issues and impediments that different groups of minority students face in establishing successful careers as graduate students and faculty members, and 2) provide tools needed by faculty and staff to develop effective mentoring skills that will positively impact student success.

The first component of this plan will be to initiate an annual Diversity Round Table sponsored by the Chancellor and the Executive Vice Chancellor.  This Round Table will bring together experts who are knowledgeable of the impediments to diversity in the professoriate and the role that good mentorship can play in overcoming these.  These individuals will be respected researchers who are representative of successful minority recruitment and retention in graduate education and in the professoriate. The second component will be to build on the Diversity Round Table through training workshops that will help Merced’s founding faculty and staff develop successful mentoring skills. An outside facilitator, experienced in research and academic mentoring, will be hired to hold tutorials with Merced founding faculty and to develop case studies that can be a source of ongoing training.

Creating Community Networks and Building Skills:  UC AGEP II will provide structured opportunities for students to develop collegial networks and skills early in their career.  Retention efforts build upon the UC Irvine Phase I program, and its success in increasing rates of URM retention in STEM fields.  These efforts began with a summer program for entering STEM graduate students and provided continuing opportunities for students to develop supportive networks and training in academic and professional skills.  Prior to the Phase I program, UCI had retention rates for minority students in STEM disciplines drastically below that of their peers: 29% lower in 1998 and 11% lower in 1999.  In fall 2000, only one year into its Phase I program, UCI’s retention rate for URM students in STEM doctoral programs surpassed that of all other students in STEM doctoral programs (100% vs. 71%) and has continued to be roughly equivalent to or better than retention rate of all other STEM doctoral students at UCI since then.

Seven campuses will implement retention programs that have as key components summer enrichment opportunities that segue into professional development and networking activities during the academic year.  The majority of these programs will focus on: 1) getting URM students physically situated on campus prior to the return of all graduate students: 2) informing them about academic expectations and available campus resources; 3) helping them get acquainted with their fellow colleagues; and 4) training them in key skills while beginning their research under the mentorship of a faculty member.  The summer programs for graduate students will emphasize not only the acquisition of resource information critical for success in an academic career, but also serve to promote the formation of an intellectual community and a mutual support cohort in which students help one another during their graduate careers and beyond.  Students will participate in workshops including “Funding Your Graduate Education,” “Advanced Library Research Skills,” “Scientific Writing,” “Taking the Qualifying Exam” and “Selecting a Faculty Mentor.”  In addition, students gain an advantage by assimilating to their new environment through summer research lab assignments. 

The expected outcome of step four is to nurture and support URM students, provide coping skills, and increase preparedness while defusing the anxiety associated with starting graduate school.  This will increase retention, self-confidence and success in the students’ chosen fields.

Step 5 Continuing Graduate Student – 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. 

After assisting URM students in becoming well-established in their graduate programs, UC AGEP II will implement a common core of co-curricular skill building workshops, opportunities for networking and intellectual exchange and administrative support.  Each program will be tailored to each individual campus environment, addressing concerns particular to the campus and/or building upon successful existing local programs.  Examples of activities include:

The expected outcomes of step 5 are to produce confident URM students whose time to degree will be comparable to non-minority graduates, and who will be highly competitive for postdoctoral positions.

Step 6 Postdoctoral Positions - Create new models for increasing URM access to and participation in postdoctoral scholar positions, thereby ensuring their competitiveness for academic positions.

The goal of Step 6 is to address URM access to suitable postdoctoral positions at research and teaching institutions. Postdoctoral opportunities are a critical pathway for URM PhDs to advance their research and better position themselves for an academic career.  Unfortunately, African American and American Indians secure postdoctoral appointments at a rate significantly lower than PhDs overall. AGEP scholars will be strongly encouraged to submit an application to the existing UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP), a prestigious two-year program that provides an important pool for new faculty hires at UC and elsewhere.  In addition, UC AGEP II will develop two new models for assisting with this step on the pathway to the professoriate: 1) the Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP) and 2) UCSF’s Advanced Preparation For Academia.

The goal of the GRIP program (www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/GRIP) is to increase both the postdoctoral opportunities for URM STEM students, and the number of URM doctorates in postdoctoral positions at UC.  By opening more pathways for HBCU doctorates to come to the UC as post-doctoral fellows
UC AGEP anticipates being able to have a significant impact on the number of African Americans who go on to join the professoriate.  This program is the first of its kind, and if it produces expected results, will produce a model of national importance.

Since recruitment to postdoctoral positions is often accomplished through social networks GRIP is intended to open those network pathways to AGEP students who might not otherwise be included. The program brings PhD AGEP students to UCSB for a summer internship (lasting between 4 and 6 weeks).  While in residence GRIP students are asked to work collaboratively with their UC mentor to write a PPFP proposal.  Students are recruited from AGEP affiliated institutions with priority being given to students who are involved in UC AGEP partnership programs (such as the UC-HBCU partnership described earlier).   Participants are provided with a $1500 stipend, on-campus housing and travel and per diem expenses. Students are matched with faculty who would ideally serve as their mentors in the PPFP application.

The GRIP program has a secondary goal of strengthening ties between UC and other AGEP institutions especially the HBCU partner schools that are given priority in the selection process. Not only does GRIP work to broaden the conduit for collaborative research relationships between UC faculty and research programs at partner institutions, it is also serves a crucial linkage in the efforts to build deep and extensive research collaborations between the UC and MSIs.   A third function of GRIP is to provide another avenue for exerting a positive influence on matters of cultural sensitivity and the expectations of local UC communities. GRIP students (at UCSB) have proven to be enormously effective ambassadors for HBCU partnership efforts and are a critical part of ongoing efforts to focus local STEM communities on the possibilities and benefits of graduate diversity. 

While the GRIP program is designed to get more URM students into postdoctoral positions, UCSF’s Advanced Preparation for Academia (APA) program proposes to optimize the skills and experience of advanced graduate students and current postdoctoral scholars to make them attractive candidates for academic appointments.  Specifically, the goals of the program are to develop an organized learning process designed for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars for the purpose of attaining careers in academia and the professoriate.  This process will include both experiential teaching opportunities for postdoctoral scholars, and co-curricular workshops for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
The APA will identify five URM postdoctoral scholars in their second and third years who demonstrate an interest in pursuing an academic career.  Building on the SFSU/UCSF Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Program, the APA will offer stipends to URM postdoctoral scholars who develop and teach a one-semester course or teach an existing course (stipends were not previously offered in this program).  This supervised teaching experience will focus on teaching methodology, content and syllabus development, evaluation and assessment of student learning, and student evaluation of teaching.  Each postdoctoral scholar is assigned a faculty consultant who works with them through each of these phases and provides feedback during the teaching practicum.  In addition, the APA will build alliances with nearby CSUs (in addition to SFSU) and private institutions to develop teaching opportunities for postdoctoral scholars.

The APA will include a co-curriculum that will both strengthen student and postdoctoral scholar resolve to enter the professoriate and provide a toolkit of academic, pedagogical, and administrative skills. Workshop topics might include the following: the reality of the academic landscape; ; establishing an excellent academic reputation;; supervised teaching experiences; learning how to make the best use of technology as a teaching tool; improving quality of scientific writing and oral presentations;  leadership and management skills; learning how to fund one’s research;  balancing teaching, research, and service; the tenure and promotion process; ; balancing the academic career with family life.  In addition, the co-curriculum will also focused on all aspects of the academic job search: creating an effective CV; identifying the right type of institution; identifying the best departmental fit; learning how to develop an effective job talk; writing a statement of teaching philosophy; negotiating the job offer, etc.

As part of a formative evaluation, the pilot campus will monitor the participation of both postdoctoral scholars in teaching and co-curricular activities, and of faculty as advisors, teaching consultants and activity leaders.  In addition, it will track the academic progression and job placement of participants in the “Advanced Preparation for Academia” co-curriculum compared to other UCSF post-doctoral scholars.  Of special interest is the success rate of URM participants in obtaining academic teaching and research positions. Finally, the pilot campus will analyze this information to determine “best practices” for postdoctoral scholar preparation for  the UC Alliance and other national AGEP partners.

The expected outcome of step 6 is to increase the percentage of URM PhD recipients who choose and secure postdoctoral positions.  This is a necessary step in many STEM disciplines to be a valid candidate for an entering academic position.  In addition, attention to building teaching skills, will create a URM candidate poised to be successful at a teaching or research institution.

The following chart indicates which UC campuses that will implement the activities described under the six steps. 

Program Management

In Phase I, UC AGEP learned that a strong Systemwide administrative infrastructure is vital to the UC AGEP effort, to balance the competitive forces intrinsic to an association of so many high-profile research institutions.  The Phase II UC AGEP administrative structure will consist of a Principal Investigator (PI) located in the office of the President, and a Steering Committee made up key personnel.

Ellen Switkes, Assistant Vice President for Academic Advancement at UC Office of the President, has been chosen PI to affirm the cooperative nature of the Alliance.  She is positioned to respond equitably to the needs of each campus program.  Dr. Switkes’ holds a PhD in Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served as a professor of Chemistry at UC Santa Cruz.  Dr. Switkes has over twenty years of leadership experience in the field of academic personnel, graduate matters and diversity.  She is currently responsible for personnel services for over 40,000 faculty student and other academic positions in the system, and administers the Systemwide diversity outreach and support programs for both graduate students and faculty. Dr. Switkes also served as PI for the six subcontracting campuses in the UC AGEP I program.

In Phase II, the campuses will guide priorities and develop ongoing activities through the UC AGEP Steering Committee.  The Steering committee is made up of Dr. Switkes, the Dean of Physical Sciences at UC Berkeley, the Co-Investigators, representatives from the NSF-funded California Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP) and MESA Engineering Programs (MEP), the Systemwide Director of Graduate Student Advancement and the Systemwide UC AGEP Coordinator. The Deans, while listed as Senior Personnel in this proposal because of constraints of the FASTLANE system, will function as Co-Investigators, responsible for the program on their campus and crucial contributors to the Systemwide Alliance through the Steering Committee.  They also will direct each campus’s dedicated UC AGEP program staff who implement UC AGEP II programs.  The Steering Committee consults with comprehensive array of participating campus STEM departments in the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Computer Sciences and Engineering (see appendix for a full list), and ensures that the Systemwide program engages and benefits from the scientific leadership at the ten campuses.  UC AGEP includes representatives from CAMP and MEP on the Steering Committee to ensure that its governing body is knowledgeable about, and collaborates with, these related outreach programs.  In addition, the Steering Committee is the primary vehicle for sharing best practices within the Alliance and with our related outreach programs. The Systemwide Coordinator will continue to be responsible for implementing the recommendations of the Steering Committee and coordinating evaluation and reporting efforts.

Grantee Contributions to the Project

UC contributions of this project include, the time and effort of the key personnel, the use of UC facilities and laboratories, and indirect costs.  Seven of the Deans are faculty in the Natural Sciences, and all are prominent academic leaders who will contribute their time and expertise to program management .  All URM students who are recruited for undergraduate enrichment, graduate programs or postdoctoral positions will have access to state-of-the-art-research facilities on UC campuses and the National Laboratories and distinguished faculty.  In addition, they will have the opportunity to apply to related outreach programs, including CAMP, MEP and UC Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees (UC LEADS), the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship Program, the Dissertation Year Fellowship Program, and the PPFP.  In addition, UC will provide office space and infrastructure for all new UC AGEP staff.  This contribution is particularly significant since nine of ten campuses waived indirect costs in order to maximize the resources available for program activities.

Plans for Institutionalization

The UC AGEP II program will build infrastructure, models, and relationships that will persist beyond the grant period.  The persisting infrastructure will include staff and electronic resources.  For example, the Diversity Coordinator model pioneered by Berkeley, and emulated by Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, presumes future funding through institutional resources.  Disciplinary deans at Santa Barbara have already agreed to support one-half of the Diversity Coordinator salaries should the proposal be funded.  It also includes resources like the UC AGEP website which will be created with AGEP funds, but continue to be maintained with institutional resources.

Several of the programs, including the MSI partnerships and the GRIP program, are designed to make the informal networks of scientists more inclusive of faculty who serve significant numbers of URM students, and thereby increase the access of their students to opportunities for graduate and postdoctoral study.  These relationships will take significant resources to foster, but will become self-sustaining, as faculty enter into productive research and recruiting relationships. 

UC’s ultimate goal in fielding so many different diversity programs in Phase II, is to develop a comprehensive set of activities and practices effecting cultural changes that lead to sustained increases in the conferral of STEM doctoral degrees to URM students.  It is hoped that this set of activities can be modified and applied throughout the UC System.  The evaluation component of this program will designed to determine the effectiveness of activities with this end result in mind.  The resulting evaluation data will also be used to support future requests for extra- and intramural funding for diversity programs.

Evaluation

Each campus will conduct formative evaluations of its activities using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.  At the system level, the effectiveness of the UC AGEP II program will be evaluated in terms of its success:

• Achieving rates of retention for URM students that are equal to or better than the average for all US Citizens and Permanent Residents in all fields;
• Narrowing the gap in the completion rate for URM PhDs and all US Citizens and Permanent Residents.
• Developing model programs for assisting URM students entry into postdoctoral researcher positions.
• Institutionalizing successful interventions, and increasing collaboration with other NSF funded research grants and programs.

The System-level evaluation will include an annual analysis of new graduate enrollment for URM students and a cycle of studies on persistence in graduate programs after two years and completion of PhD. programs after ten years.  The results of the latter studies will be shared with the campus Chancellors, Executive Vice Chancellors, Graduate Deans and AGEP Steering Committee.  Campuses will coordinate with the Systemwide efforts and conduct qualitative and qualitative data collection to determine the effectiveness of each set of diversity activities in reaching their intended goals.

Conclusion

UC AGEP II is a comprehensive program of improvements on the pathway to the professoriate that starts in the undergraduate years and continues through to postdoctoral positions, while also providing information on the academic, teaching and research challenges facing an Assistant Professor.  Its design includes a balance of outreach, recruitment and retention efforts that proved successful in Phase I and are being extended to multiple campuses.  As well, it includes inventive new initiatives to increase the yield of admitted students and provide more and better opportunities for postdoctoral study.  As a given campus succeeds with a model program, the ideas can be disseminated easily and adopted by other campuses in the system.  For that reason, comparison of best practices through regular interactions facilitated by the AGEP infrastructure is also an integral part of this proposal. It is expected that AGEP II will result in a significant increase in the number of URM PhDs who graduate from UC programs and enter the professoriate.  In addition, it will build networks and models for diversity interventions that will persist after the grant period ends.

References Cited

Strategic Communications, UC Office of the President (2001). Profile of the University of California.  Retrieved July 19, 2004, from http://www.ucop.edu/news/profiles/Profile_2001.pdf.

Strategic Communications, UC Office of the President (2003). Nobel Prize Laureates Affiliated With the University of California. Retrieved July 19, 2004, from
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/factsheets/nobellaur.pdf

The two-year retention study was conducted for the Fall 1996-1998 Doctoral Entry Cohorts. 

A study of the Fall 1998-1990 doctoral entry cohort in the natural sciences showed that 55% of the URM students had earned their doctorates, as compared 65% of White students and 62% of all US Citizens and Permanent Residents.

This data is maintained at the UC Office of the President.  The data shows that of the 1999 summer program participants who were able to be tracked 70.7% were in graduate or professional school 2002.  For the 2000 cohort, 70% were in graduate or professional school in 2003.

For more information about the California Master Plan for Higher Education, see:
http://www.ucop.edu/acadinit/mastplan/.

California State University (CSU), Office of Public Affairs (2003). CSU Facts 2003.  Retrieved July 20, 2004 from: http://www.calstate.edu/PA/2003Facts/enrollment_Fall2002.shtml

California State University (CSU), Office of Public Affairs (2002).  Analytic Studies and Statistical Abstracts. Retrieved July 20, 2004 from:
http://www.calstate.edu/AS/stat_abstract/stat0102/pdf/abstract/C_Sec2.pdf

National Science Foundation (NSF), Science Resources Studies Division. 1996.  Table 14b: Top 27 institutions that were baccalaureate origins of 1991-95 science and engineering (S&E) doctorate recipients who were Mexican-American U.S. citizens, ranked according to total S&E doctorates, by field of doctorate.  Retrieved July 20, 2004 from:
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf96334/tables/tab14b.xls.

Carey, K. (2004) A Matter of Degrees: Improving Graduation Rates in Four-Year Colleges and Universities. Retrieved July 20, 2004 from: http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust.

Press Release.  Public Policy Institute of California. San Francisco, California, May 8, 2002.
Growth Slows, Diversity Grows In California's Regions.  Retrieved from:
http://www.ppic.org/main/pressrelease.asp?i=279.

Hill, S., Hoffer, T., Golladay, M. (2004).  Plans for Postdoctoral Research Appointments Among Recent U.S. Doctorate Recipients.  National Science Foundation (NSF), Science Resources Studies Division. NSF 04-308.  

http://www.ucop.edu/acadadv/ppfp/