Minority Bridge Program Overview

Transcription

1 Minority Bridge Program Workshop 1 June 2010 College Park, MD Minority Bridge Program Overview Theodore Hodapp American Physical Society Director of Education and Diversity

2 Tonight s Discussion (Brief) History of the effort Outline of the Problem Structure for our Discussions Larger plan for project / Timeline Questions 2

3 Joint Diversity Statement 08.2 JOINT DIVERSITY STATEMENT (Adopted by APS, NSBP, NSHP in 2008) To ensure a productive future for science and technology in the United States, we must make physics more inclusive. The health of physics requires talent from the broadest demographic pool. Underrepresented groups constitute a largely untapped intellectual resource and a growing segment of the U.S. population. Therefore, we charge our membership with increasing the numbers of underrepresented minorities in physics in the pipeline and in all professional ranks, with becoming aware of barriers to implementing this change, and with taking an active role in organizational and institutional efforts to bring about such change. We call upon legislators, administrators, and managers at all levels to enact policies and promote budgets that will foster greater diversity in physics. We call upon employers to pursue recruitment, retention and promotion of underrepresented minority physicists at all ranks and to create a work environment that encourages inclusion. We call upon the physics community as a whole to work collectively to bring greater diversity wherever physicists are educated or employed.

4 Minorities in Higher Education 4

5 Minorities in Physics Education 5

6 URM Physics PhDs Normalized to College-age Population 6

7 Project Goals Bring minority PhD graduation rate into parity with bachelor rate (roughly double) in 10 years Spawn sustainable programs Demonstrate models of success Change physics department culture Spread best-practice ideas Work collectively / centrally (APS) where actions are appropriate and cost-effective Study/Publish scholarship on programs/ideas 7

8 Steering Committee J.D. Garcia (University of Arizona) Yolanda George (AAAS) Wendell Hill (University of Maryland, College Park) Anthony Johnson (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) Ramon Lopez (UT Arlington) Steve McGuire (Southern University) Cherry Murray, chair (Harvard, APS President 2009) APS Staff Ted Hodapp (APS) Michelle Iacoletti (APS, Project Manager) Arlene Modeste Knowles (APS) 8

9 Project Activities Visit institutions where minority students (African- American, Hispanic-American) students get BS degrees Establish personal links with students and faculty Recruit ~6-10 top research universities to bring their resources to this problem (faculty and administration) Understand existing programs (e.g., Fisk-Vanderbilt, Columbia, AGEP) Gather data on why physics minority undergrads choose not to pursue PhDs June 2010 gathering of these groups Proposal in Fall 2010 to bootstrap programs at research universities 9

10 MSI Site Visit Objectives Establish personal contact and relationships with faculty and students Increase physics career awareness and inform students about graduate school options and procedures Learn about challenges, successes and needs of the faculty and students Inform faculty, students and administrators about the Minority Bridge Program, and obtain information on possible programmatic elements 10

11 Physics Majors 11

12 Minority Physics Bachelor Degrees: Top Institutions University of PR Humacao 10 Morehouse College 10 University of PR Mayaguez 7 Xavier University of Louisiana 9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Arizona University of California-Los Angeles University of Texas at Austin Florida International University University of PR Rio Piedras Southwest Texas State University University of Florida Harvard University University of California-Santa Barbara University of California-Davis Benedict College Spelman College Southern University, Baton Rouge Florida A&M University Dillard University Norfolk State University Tuskegee University American University Chicago State University Hampton University University of California-Riverside University of Washington-Seattle 12

13 Key Components: Participation Level Faculty site leader Doctoral-Granting Institution (DGI) visits to Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) Committee on Minorities (COM) climate site visit DGI faculty sensitization Review of graduate admissions process Mentoring of students Monitoring student progress Resource commitment Active recruiting / advocacy by APS 1

14 Bridge Types Masters degree as a transition to PhD Take advanced UG and entry-level graduate coursework Do research with doctoral faculty Demonstrate ability to do independent research and succeed in graduate-level coursework Become known to graduate faculty Separate doctoral-level admissions Receive mentoring, coaching on graduate admissions process Receive graduate-assistantship Post-baccalaureate year Similar attributes to Masters program, but not formally admitted Begin research in summer 14

15 Cumulative PhD Completion Rate for Math/Physical Sciences Completion Rate (%) % of others Year Asian American White African American Hispanic American Source: Council on Graduate Schools 15

16 Admissions Bias? 16

17 Top Physics Doctoral Degree Granting Institutions MIT Stanford University University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign Harvard University University of California, Berkeley University of Texas at Austin University of Maryland, College Park Cornell University California Institute of Technology University of Wisconsin, Madison University of Rochester SUNY at Stony Brook University of Arizona Princeton University Columbia University PhDs per year, averaged over 5 years. Source: NSF Doctoral Degree Completion Survey University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Pennsylvania State University Ohio State University University of Colorado at Boulder University of Washington, Seattle University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Santa Barbara University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of Chicago These 10 institutions educate 2% of all physics PhDs granted in the US 17

18 Structure of Workshop Sunday: Introductions, Setting the stage Monday: Ideas, Questions, Voices, Discussion Tuesday: More questions, Plans Post-workshop Timeline: Discussions at your institution Report / Input to APS (late June) Further discussions (July) Proposal writing / fundraising (August / September) Project start (Fall 2011) 18