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Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1311
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 09:26 pm: | 
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For the life of me I can't find that Blacks in STEM fields thread from a while back. I wanted to add the following to it. From Inside Higher Education http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/13/grad:
Diversity Up for Grad Students
The enrollment of graduate students increased by 2 percent — to more than 1.5 million — from 2004 to 2005, according to a report released today by the Council of Graduate Schools.
While the 2 percent increase is modest, data in the report suggest that those in the pool of faculty candidates in the future may be less likely to be white males than they are today. The enrollment increase for women outpaced that for men, 3 percent to 1 percent, leading to a one percentage point increase in the overall female share of the grad student population, to 58 percent. The gender gap is particularly pronounced among black graduate students, 71 percent of whom are female.
Underrepresented minority groups also saw healthy increases, although their total share continues to lag. Black enrollment was up 6 percent. First-time Hispanic enrollment was up 10 percent. And these increases took place during a period in which many universities found themselves being forced to change the rules on fellowships for minority graduate students, facing threats that they might be sued if they didn’t do so.
Also notable in the data are increases for black and Hispanic graduate students in selected science and technology fields where their numbers have been extremely low. Black enrollment was up 11 percent in engineering and Hispanic enrollment was up 16 percent in the biological sciences, for instance.
...Debra Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, called the minority figures “the most encouraging of the numbers,” and she noted the importance of this progress for creating future faculty members. “This is the pool,” she said.
While she was pleased with the progress, she said that it was clear that “a lot needs to be done” for colleges to continue both to attract more students to graduate study and to diversify their student bodies. She said that one important thing universities need to do is show minority students “a clear career path” for pursing graduate education. For those from families without a lot of money or who are the first in their families to go to college, it’s vital that people see the opportunities — in and out of academe — available to those with graduate degrees.
The University of Washington provides an example of how colleges are making progress.
Underrepresented minority students make up about 8 percent of graduate students there, 50 percent more than five years ago. Suzanne Ortega, vice provost and graduate dean, said that the progress is now starting to take off, and that a wide range of strategies are being used. The graduate program is trying to recruit more undergraduates, promoting research careers in local schools, and creating new partnerships.
For instance, Washington’s materials research center started a partnership with Norfolk State University, a historically black college clear across the country, more than two and a half years ago. There have been faculty and student exchanges, joint research projects, and many other activities. This fall, three Norfolk State graduates are enrolling in the doctoral program at Washington.
“Our approach has been to create partnerships and also to give them time to flourish,” Ortega said. “These things have a life of their own,” she said. “If you attract a cohort of students, and provide them with the mentoring they deserve, they will be doing a lot of recruiting for you”...
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 1447
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 01:06 am: |
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http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/179/13568.html?1155123069
(Yvette - when you're searching an internet page - or any computer page actually - you can do a screen search. Hit control + F, for find, type in your search word or phrase and it will find it for you or tell you it doesn't exist. Beats the heck out of scanning an entire website for whatever) |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1312
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 07:36 am: |
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Thanks, Mzuri! Your consulting tech fee is in the mail LOL |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6547
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 09:56 am: |
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Yvettep,
The disparity between Black female and male grad school matriculation is troubling, though, alas, most PREDICTABLE.
But seeing overall increases of Black grad students, especially in ENGINEERING, is profoundly gratifying...and inspiring. |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1313
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 12:26 pm: |
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Yup. It's always a good news/bad news--two steps forward/one step back kinda thing, isn't it. Well, we just keep on keeping on, fighting the good fight, and all that jazz. LOL |
Totusdulcidine
Newbie Poster
Username: Totusdulcidine
Post Number: 16
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 01:41 pm: |
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My goddaugther is one of the 71 percent mentioned in Yvettep post. She is at Cambridge now working towards both a MBA and a Masters in Public Policy in the three-year dual masters program at Harvard and MIT. It is her first year. I am going to call her to find out how many Black males are in the Masters program at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and in MIT's MBA program this year.
There is a great disparity between Black females and males in graduate school but I think more resources need to be concentrated on getting young Black men to attain post-secondary education.
As of March 2004, nationwide, 17.6 percent of Black Americans 25 years and over had attained bachelor's degrees, representing 16.6 percent of the national numbers as compared to 18.5 percent of their Black female and 32.9 percent of their White male counterparts 25 years and over who had attained bachelor's degrees.
Getting Black males to atttain an undergraduate degree must be a priority for the Black community. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 1327
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 02:57 pm: |
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And for the men themselves. They're not going to stay in college if it's not something they want for themselves. |
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