Administrators, faculty members and students are working to address the underrepresentation of students from certain minority groups in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — known as STEM fields — by expanding initiatives to address inequalities in students’ pre-college preparation and by enhancing efforts to change the culture of science classrooms.
Such efforts date back to 1994, when the University launched a mentorship program for underrepresented minorities in the sciences, using money from an educational philanthropy called the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation, said David Targan ’78, associate dean of the College for science education. In 2000, the Balfour Program was renamed the New Scientist Program.
“There was a recognition that during the 21st century the majority of students would be minority students,” Targan said.
The New Scientist Program is aimed to “increase presence, performance and retention of underrepresented minority students in STEM,” said Joseph Browne ’11, the program’s coordinator. The program runs a mentorship initiative throughout the school year as well as the Catalyst pre-orientation program. Browne also meets with students individually and advocates for underrepresented minority students in the sciences at the University.
Catalyst selects students from underrepresented backgrounds — a category including not just underrepresented minority students, but also first-generation and homeschooled students — and helps ease the transition process with material that focuses on the process of learning in the sciences, Browne said.
“We’re looking for students who are motivated enough that they are going to do well, that are contending with a challenging first step going from high school to college,” Targan said.
“My mission is that students walk out with the degree that they want,” Browne said, calling it problematic when students drop their intended concentrations because they do not believe they can succeed in those areas.
Bianca Duah ’16, who participated in Catalyst, said the program enhanced her experience in STEM courses by introducing her to minority faculty members. But she questioned whether Catalyst was large enough to be effective.
Of the roughly 100 students who apply for Catalyst, only 15 are accepted each year.
The University recently applied for a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that would cover expanding Catalyst from 15 to 50 students, Targan said.
Under the grant proposal, first-years who participate in Catalyst would live in close proximity so Catalyst could offer programming in the dorms and students who live together could work together, Targan said. The grant also requests additional funding to overhaul first- and second-year STEM courses.
If the University does not receive the grant, Catalyst will likely undergo a smaller expansion, Targan said.
STEM reforms
The University is looking to make changes that would improve all students’ STEM experiences — changes administrators said could particularly benefit underrepresented minorities.
Over the next three years, the University will revise introductory STEM classes in efforts to keep students engaged and boost retention rates in science disciplines. The changes come through an initiative partially funded by the Association of American Universities.
Targan said he expects underrepresented minority students to benefit most from the overhaul of the introductory STEM curricula.
“If there’s a problem, it may not affect everyone, but it will affect them,” he said.
Due to the starkness of the physical sciences gap, the initiative’s emphasis on improving math competency may prove especially beneficial. James Valles, physics department chair, said the optional problem sessions that have been added to more physics courses this semester “build community in structured problem solving.”
Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said though there is a sharp underrepresentation of minorities in the physical sciences, there is not one in the life sciences.
Last spring, underrepresented minority students at the University received 16.9 percent of life science degrees but only 5.6 percent of physical science degrees, according to data provided by the OIR.
Bergeron and Browne said the trend may be the result of greater opportunities to participate in research in life sciences at an earlier stage.
“There are a range of causes, from differential preparation students have had before coming to Brown and the kinds of experiences students need to feel they belong in a particular discipline,” Bergeron said.
Faculty diversity
Underrepresented students’ senses of belonging in science disciplines would be enhanced by greater numbers of minority faculty members, students said.
Faculty members from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups hold just over 4 percent of positions in both the life sciences and physical sciences, compared to 7.5 percent of positions across the University, according to data from the OIR.
Ricardo Mullings ’15.5, a Caribbean-American student concentrating in chemical engineering, said it is hard not to ask, “Do people of your color make it in this field?”
“You begin to wonder if this is the path for you if no one resembles you,” Targan said.
The faculty hiring process includes a number of steps designed to promote the hiring of underrepresented minorities. Every search committee includes a diversity representative whose role is to advocate for minority candidates, said Associate Dean of the Faculty Janet Blume.
Blume, Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin P’12 and Associate Provost for Academic Development and Diversity Liza Cariaga-Lo are responsible for approving the advertisements for open faculty positions, the composition of the search committees, the short list of candidates and the final hiring recommendations, Blume said.
When the search committee presents its short list of top candidates for approval, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty’s may push for bringing a top minority candidate to campus for an interview even if the candidate is not on the initial short list, Blume said.
“Just because someone’s in the second tier, doesn’t mean they’re an inferior candidate,” Blume said. “It has to do with how well they fit into the department’s technical area of expertise.”
Departments without vacancies are also allowed to “prepone” the upcoming retirement of a faculty member by hiring a strong minority candidate before the position is open through the “Target of Opportunity” program. During the overlap of the two faculty members for the same position, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty will pay the new faculty member’s salary, Blume said. The program is not solely for hiring minority faculty members — it also enables the hiring of outstanding candidates outside of the typical hiring process.
Blume said her office wants to hire more science faculty members from underrepresented groups, but they are often faced with a small applicant pool.
Student initiatives
Many students have taken it upon themselves to create programs and launch initiatives that address the issue of minority underrepresentation in the sciences.
Jamelle Watson-Daniels ’15, a black student who is concentrating in physics and Africana studies, developed her own initiative to improve underrepresented minority students’ experiences in STEM. Specifically, her initiative has focused on the hiring of a black physics professor.
By hiring a black professor, Watson-Daniels wrote in the description of her initiative, “Brown will not only produce scientifically prepared physicists ... but also students with a certain respect and dedication to a more diverse group of people.”
Earlier this year, the physics department appointed a black faculty member, James Dickerson, as an adjunct associate professor of physics. Assistant Dean of the College and Director of Science Center Outreach Oludurotimi Adetunji also serves as an adjunct assistant professor of physics.
“We’re excited about him being here,” Valles said of Dickerson’s appointment. “It’s a nice opportunity on many levels,” Valles said, adding that his research overlaps with other research being conducted in the department.
Both appointments preceded Watson-Daniels’ initiative, Valles wrote in an email to The Herald, but her proposal “will be helpful” in “future faculty searches.”
Mullings, a chemical engineering concentrator, has been involved in setting up the Brown chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. The National Society is a community service based nation-wide program that provides opportunities for minority students in engineering to collaborate on different projects, he said.
The University has been really supportive of the program, he said, adding that the president of the National Society has been in direct communication with Dean of Engineering Larry Larson.
Jesus Leyva ’16, a student from Mexico concentrating in human biology and applied math, said he has been “disenchanted by minority groups on campus.”
He said he feels many groups don’t address the right issues — specifically, they do not promote the sciences, reinforcing the notion that people from certain backgrounds do not fit into the science fields.
There should also be more advertising for events that address academic issues for underrepresented minority students, Leyva added.
In the future, Browne said he would like to see programs consolidated into one advising program that shares resources and better addresses the needs of a wider student audience. Programs that address the needs of underrepresented minority students should be integrated into daily activity, he added.
If some students are succeeding in the sciences while others are failing, “I’m a person who says we can do better,” he said.
“Brown is sold to ... every person coming in as this magical place of self-discovery,” Browne said. “I don’t think we should ever underestimate the responsibility we have to students for whom we’ve recruited under that promise.”
— With additional reporting by Isobel Heck
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