North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation - Phase III

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, Greensboro NC

Investigators

Abstract

North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation - Phase III The North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (NC-LSAMP) requests support for continuingits efforts during Phase III. The LS-NCAMP Alliance includes eight partner institutions - North Carolina A&T State University (lead institution), Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Charlotte, University of North Carolina - Pembroke, and Winston Salem State University. The Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at North Carolina A&T State University will lead the project with assistance from key administrators at all Alliance institutions. This will ensure the effective institutionalization of the strategies proposed here. The work proposed caps a decade long series of activities aimed primarily at increasing undergraduate degree production in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (SMET). Underrepresented minorities comprise 30 percent of the college-age population but they represent only 11 percent of the baccalaureate engineering graduates resulting in a "parity gap" of 19 percent. The parity gap is even more pronounced at the master's and doctoral level. Clearly, more needs to be done to reduce this parity gap, more out of economic necessity and to meet global competitive pressures than any other reason. The efforts outlined in this proposal are aimed at meeting this challenge. The activities proposed in this proposal are driven by the need to increase substantially the number of underrepresented minorities who will contribute significantly in science, mathematics, engineering and technology areas. While the baccalaureate degree programs will receive continued attention, special emphasis will be placed on amplifying the flow of minority students in the graduate and research pipeline. The primary goals of the proposal are (i) to increase the pool of competent underrepresented SMET graduates with bachelor's degrees (specific objectives include increasing the number of SMET graduates from bachelor's degree programs by 10% from allAlliance partner schools by 2007 and increasing the quality of SMET bachelors degree graduates from all alliance partner schools based on their performance in college courses and national examinations by 50% by 2007) and (ii) to increase the number of students who matriculate into SMET graduate schools (specific objectives include increasing the number of SMET students who express an interest in graduate studies by 100% by 2007, increasing by 100%, the number of SMET graduates who are academically qualified for admission to graduate programs by 2007, increasing the number of SMET graduates from alliance partner institutions who are enrolled in graduate SMET programs by 100% by 2007, and increasing the retention rate by 10% of underrepresented students in graduate SMET programs). An additional goal of the project is to identify significant factors that promote baccalaureatedegree attainment, retention in academic programs and entry into graduate school in SMET areas (specific objectives are to identify significant factors that promote and hinder retention of minority students enrolled in SMETbaccalaureate degree programs, and to identify significant factors that promote and hinder entry of minority undergraduate students into graduate SMET degree programs). Strategies for accomplishing project goals are based on published techniques that have proven successful in smaller samples. Specifically, the approaches to be employed include focused recruitment from school; bridge programs to manage the school-college transition; supplemental instruction, cohort scheduling and workshops for undergraduate students during the first year to enhance retention and preparation for upper-class coursework; undergraduate research and professional development workshops aimed at motivating and preparing students for graduate study; and the development of networking and mentoring systems to improve retention in the first year in graduate school. A key emphasis during Phase III will be Alliance-wide institutionalization of proven strategies that have been known to improve the success rates of students in SMET. The Alliance partners together awarded over a thousand degrees and currently enroll over six thousand undergraduate minority students in SMET programs. In addition to students in the Alliance, dissemination activities under this proposal have the potential to impact several thousand students each year.