With a $4.9 million grant from the Louis
Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation, a program
of the National Science Foundation, the University of Georgia
will lead an alliance of six state colleges and universities
in Georgia that aims to boost the number of underrepresented
minorities who receive bachelor’s degrees in science,
technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines.
The purpose of the five-year initiative—in collaboration with Bainbridge
College, Fort Valley State University, Georgia Perimeter College, Savannah State
University and Southern Polytechnic University—is to double, during the
agreement period, the number of underrepresented minority students in Georgia
who complete undergraduate degrees in STEM.
UGA will serve as the lead institution and fiscal agent for the grant and program
(to be known as the Peach State LSAMP), which will be administered jointly by
Dean Maureen Grasso of UGA’s Graduate School and Associate Provost Keith
Parker of UGA’s Office of Institutional Diversity.
“The University System has made increasing access to higher education for
underrepresented segments of the state’s population a priority,” says
University System Chancellor Thomas C. Meredith. “We encourage our institutions
to collaborate and combine resources to broaden access. This National Science
Foundation grant recognizes the ability of our campuses to work together to create
a solid program targeted toward minorities in some key fields of study.”
Beginning this fall, UGA and its partners will collaborate on projects to prepare
African Americans, Hispanic Americans and other underrepresented minorities for
careers in STEM fields. The goal of the collaborative effort is to increase minority
enrollment and retention in STEM fields at the participating institutions from
560 to 1,120 students during the five-year period.
“Improving educational participation of minorities is a major state issue,
and even more so in the fields of science, technology and mathematics,” says
UGA President Michael F. Adams. “This grant allows the University of Georgia,
working with five of its sister institutions, an opportunity to greatly enhance
minority participation in these fields that are so important to the state’s
success in the 21st century. I am pleased that we are collaborating with our
colleagues toward this important goal.”
LSAMP is part of a nationwide effort by NSF to increase the number of minority
students successfully completing STEM baccalaureate degree programs and to increase
the number of minority students interested in and academically prepared to pursue
graduate study in math and science.
The flagship NSF program is conducted with full congressional approval and authorization,
according to A. James Hicks, LSAMP program director at NSF.
“Diversity is a part of America’s strength,” Hicks says. “And
if America is to remain pre-eminent in the STEM fields, it must make use of its
diversity.”
The program will address issues that affect student success in core STEM courses
and build on existing successful drop-in tutoring programs; expand existing programs
of supplemental instruction by peers; encourage alliance institutions to host
an annual undergraduate research conference; and improve the faculty and graduate-student
mentoring that undergraduate summer research student participants receive.
During the five-year period, the PSLSAMP partner institutions will select eligible
students and pair them with faculty mentors who will assist them in research
efforts. Each campus will hold conferences and symposia for faculty mentors,
host research fairs for participating students and design activities for pre-collegiate
students. A statewide research fair will be held in conjunction with Clark Atlanta
University, which also has a grant from NSF’s LSAMP.
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