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An NSF-Sponsored Collaborative Effort of SBE Programs at:Stanford University
Texas A&M UniversityUniversity of Southern California
University of Texas at Austin
EDGE SBE Fellows Program:Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
Overview EDGE SBE
Our collaborative project alliance has three goals: 1) To increase the enrollment, retention, and
successful graduation of under-represented minority students in the graduate programs of the SBE sciences at our institutions;
2) To help create long-term institutional change focused on improving graduate program diversity in the SBE sciences on each of our campuses; and
3) To create a network of universities in the southwest region of the United States that share the best practices in this area.
Alliance Activities to Date
• Diversity directors already hired from this grant on three of our campuses; the other campus has a new search underway.
• Diversity Directors will serve as a program coordinator, mentor for students, and key resource person for the SBE sciences on each campus.
• Collaboration and sharing of best practices across the four campuses will be an important part of this effort.
1) Hire a Ph.D.-level Diversity Director – either ½ time or full time – on each of our campuses who is dedicated to achieving EDGE-SBE goals.
Alliance Activities to Date2) Work with key admissions personnel in SBE
departments on each of our campuses to improve the diversity of incoming graduate student cohorts.
• Meet with key administrators and faculty to make graduate student diversity an issue of focus.
• Work with admissions committees in key departments to more effectively examine minority student applications.
• Work with departments to provide “add-on” funding to the basic financial packages for minority graduate students at each institution.
Alliance Activities to Date
3) Improve recruiting efforts of minority students for our SBE graduate programs.
• Attend key recruiting fairs, such as the California Diversity Forum, as a coordinated multi-campus effort.
• Establish better working relationships with feeder campuses, particularly through travel by the SBE Diversity Director on each campus.
• Create a collaborative brochure to publicize our programs and efforts. (Website to come).
Alliance Activities to Date4) Improve the retention and successful
completion of minority graduate students in the SBE sciences on each of our campuses.
• Provide modest funding to help fill in some of the support gaps that students often face.
• Utilize the talents of the SBE Diversity Director to help provide a contact person and mentor on each campus.
• Host a regular 4-campus conference for our EDGE-SBE Fellows to provide a network of fellows across campuses.
• Host other events for EDGE-SBE Fellows, such as professional workshops and guest speakers to build a stronger community of SBE minority graduate students on each campus.
Alliance Activities to Date
5) Work together on a frequent basis to share best practices and discuss program goals, objectives, successes, and challenges across campuses.
• Create and use a program list-serve.• Hold monthly conference calls.• Meet/plan at other NSF conferences such as this.• Meet at academic conferences (e.g., ASA) to
discuss progress/ideas/issues, etc…
Successes to Dateat Stanford University
• Hired EDGE-SBE Diversity Director in November 2005.
• Established an email account for the project.
• Met with representatives of targeted departments, who served on their departmental admissions committees and advocated for selection of SBE Fellows.
• Recruiting efforts implemented in this round of admissions in our three targeted disciplines.
• Collaborating with Stanford Multicultural Student Services Office to develop mentoring and professional development programs.
Successes to Dateat Texas A&M University
• Building on past connections with predominantly African American and Latino institutions in Texas through previous NSF REU summer institutes.
• Great success recruiting graduate students of color in 3 key depts (n=19) who will be joining TAMU graduate programs in Fall 2006, including 6 EDGE-SBE students.
• Ongoing success in the representation of students of color currently in the TAMU SBE graduate programs (18%-34%).
• TAMU Diversity Fellowships have also been instrumental in recruiting students of color with the EDGE-SBE Fellowships providing supplementary support.
Successes to Dateat the University of Texasat Austin
• Two students are of particular note: one entering in sociology, the other in anthropology.
• Institutional commitments has been substantial– Matching funds for full-time SBE diversity program
coordinator – $30K per year in matching fellowship funds– Waive indirect costs on NSF grant
• 6 NSF-supported SBE under-represented minority students will enter the Ph.D. programs for fall 06.
Successes to Date at the University of Southern California
• Project mission statement with goals and proposed activities drafted.
• Faculty Advisory Committee formed and met twice. • 5-year admissions and enrollment data report drafted for
use in focusing efforts. • Dedicated project email account established • Hosted California Diversity FORUM in April 2005
• Diversity director hired in January 2006.
• The grant began too far into the year for us to get our full range of activities in place before the peak of the 06-07 recruiting season.
• Diversity Director searches have taken a long time on two campuses.
• Changing institutional culture is a long-term commitment.• Some of the financial packages offered by our
competitor schools (including some of those here!) are SUBSTANTIAL.
Challenges so far EDGE SBE
University of Texas at Austin Principal Investigator: Dr. Robert Hummer, Professor of Sociology
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Darlene Grant, Associate Dean of the Graduate SchoolSBE Diversity Program Coordinator: Dr. Joe LottProgram Contact: [email protected]
University of Southern CaliforniaPrincipal Investigator: Dr. Jean Morrison, Associate Vice-Provost for Graduate Programs
SBE Diversity Director: Dr. Dean CampbellProgram Contact: [email protected]
Texas A&M University Principal Investigator: Dr. Rogelio Saenz, Professor of Sociology
SBE Diversity Director: to be namedProgram Contact: [email protected]
Stanford University Principal Investigator: Dr. Karen Cook, Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology
SBE Diversity Director: Kyra Greene, Department of SociologyProgram Contact: [email protected]
Principal Investigators, Co-Principal Investigators, Diversity Directors, and Contact Information for Each Participating University:
