Postdoctorates and the Professoriate

Another goal of UC AGEP 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.

The Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP) —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.
 
UCSF Advanced Preparation For Academia (APA) — This 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 tool kit 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.