Grant set to boost campus diversity

Along with 14 other New England colleges, Boston University will receive an annual stipend from a $9 million National Science Foundation grant to help recruit and retain minority graduate students, according to University of Massachusetts at Amherst Provost Charlene Seymour, who is responsible for delegating the funds.

The grant, which UMass-Amherst received last week, is designed to attract minority students and a diverse group of professors to the fields of science, math, engineering and technology, according to the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate website.

Jeremy Goodman, program manager of the BU Northeast Alliance chapter, said "BU will be receiving approximately $132,000 per year over the next five years to expand our efforts here."

Other schools sharing the grant include Rutgers University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University and the Universities of Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont.

"We are absolutely delighted to receive this grant from the National Science Foundation, a highly recognized institute indeed," Seymour said. "It really reflects upon the model programs at our university and their desire to develop even more diversity at the graduate levels."

Seymour said although each school will use the grant to promote diversity in graduate science programs, each plan to spend the money in different ways.

"We will be sending both students and faculty alike to visit our partner institutions, usually African American colleges such as Dennis College and Lincoln University, in order to attract underrepresented minorities and students," she said.

According to Goodman, the university will focus its grant money on recruitment and research initiatives.

"Funding [at BU] will be used to host recruiting fairs and attend national and regional meetings to make recruiting contacts and host information sessions about BU's graduate program," he said. "Funding also supports the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program."

SURF is a 10-week research experience, which supports six undergraduate students each summer to gain hands-on research experience at the university, while learning academic opportunities in the graduate schools, Goodman said.

He said both the university and UMass-Amherst do not expect the grant to fully alleviate the problems each school has with recruiting minorities.

"We don't expect the grant to solve our problems," Goodman said. "Only the continued commitment of the entire university community will do that."

Seymour said she views the grant as a way to enhance existing programs and better utilize resources for minority graduate students.

"With this alliance, we hope to share our resources, talents and strengths and to give these underrepresented minorities the full credit they deserve," she said. "We hope to continue enhancing and increasing our diversity in the future with continued and consistent efforts from all fifteen participating schools."

Goodman said he is optimistic in the alliance between NEAGEP and the New England universities.

"The small advances we have had in the initial five years of the grant are on the verge of blossoming into much larger successes as we move forward into the second phase of the Northeast Alliance," he said.