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Changing the Face of Academia Research universities in Michigan partner to increase the diversity of future faculty members September 18, 2013 Michigan Technological University and the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, Wayne State University are partners on a 3.5‐year $1.32 million project sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Michigan Tech will partner with the other research universities in Michigan to test strategies designed to increase the number of domestic underrepresented minority graduate students pursuing careers in academia. The project will involve an extensive research component that will test the effectiveness mentoring and community‐building events on graduate students’ persistence toward a degree and interest in continuing on to a career in academia. “I am very excited about this project because it will result in hard data that can be used to test the importance of mentoring relationships and a sense of community on graduate students’ experiences. I anticipate that by learning more about the graduate experience for students who are not members of the dominant racial/ethnic group we will learn more about how to better meet the needs of all graduate students regardless of their race, ethnicity, or gender” said principal investigator Jacqueline Huntoon. This research project is strengthened by the fact that four very different universities will participate in the project. Graduate Deans at all four universities recognize that the demographics of the U.S. population are changing dramatically. The goal of the project is to ultimately diversify the ranks of higher education faculty so that they are more representative of the U.S. population at large and can better meet the needs of students and employers. The project will ultimately help graduate schools across the country learn more about how to better serve students. Craig Friedrich (Mechanical Engineering), Shekhar Joshi (Biological Sciences), and Chris Wojick (Civil and Environmental Engineering) are co‐principal investigators on the project. Contact for more information: Jacqueline Huntoon, Ph.D., Professor of Geology and Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School,
[email protected]; also see http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5474 .