Colorado State To Administer $5 Million Grant To Double Number Of Minority Science Graduates In Colorado, Four Corners Region
Wednesday, November 13, 1996
FORT COLLINS--The number of minority students earning
bachelor's degrees in mathematics, science, engineering and
technology in Colorado and the Four Corners area will double when
a new five-year, $5 million grant administered by Colorado State
University meets its goal.
The Colorado Alliance for Minority Participation grant
supported by the National Science Foundation targets under-
represented minority students. The grant was awarded to Colorado
State in conjunction with Fort Lewis College, Durango, and other
colleges, universities, Native American tribes, industry groups
and government agencies throughout the region. In addition to the
$5 million from the National Science Foundation, participating
groups also will contribute an additional $5 million total to the
program. Colorado State will administer the funds, which will be
distributed among the participating groups.
The grant sets specific numerical goals to increase the
number of under-represented minority students who earn bachelor's
degrees in an effort to increase diversity in these scientific
fields in industry and teaching.
The goal of the Colorado project is to help 500 or more
Hispanic, African American and Native American students per year
graduate with degrees in science, mathematics, engineering or
technology by the end of the five-year grant. Currently, about
half, or about 250 Hispanic, African American and Native American
students, earn degrees in these fields annually.
Colorado State President Albert C. Yates, speaking at a
presentation to the National Science Foundation in support of the
grant, said increased diversity in these fields is crucial.
"Colorado, as a state, has made a strong commitment to
diversity in higher education because we recognize that, to be
successful in the long term, we can't continue to ignore and
discount a large percentage of our population."
Yates, who is chancellor of the Colorado State University
System, said the higher education community in the state and
region would work together to achieve the goal, which he believes
will make the project a success.
"CO-AMP is specially targeted to the needs of Colorado's
Hispanic, black and Native American populations, all of whom are
historically and currently under-represented in our state's
colleges and universities and most dramatically under-represented
in the areas of science, engineering, mathematics and technology.
The institutions named in CO-AMP are wholeheartedly committed to
its success and are best qualified to manage this project for the
growing minority population in the state of Colorado."
Omnia El-Hakim, professor of civil engineering with a joint
appointment at Colorado State and Fort Lewis College, is the
principal investigator and project director for the grant. El-
Hakim, director of the Minority Engineering and Science Program
at Fort Lewis, said the key to the grant's success is integration
with the many programs targeted at minorities throughout the
region.
"The grant will help us provide the kind of support that is
so necessary for academic success," El-Hakim said. "It will help
us build bridges between the public high schools, community
colleges, colleges, universities and industry to support these
students. These bridges will help us recruit and retain minority
students who want to study in these fields. We also will provide
the needed academic and cultural support during their studies and
provide continued support as these students make the transition
to industry or to graduate school."
El-Hakim, who also heads the physics and engineering
department at Fort Lewis, said 24 alliances for minority
participation exist across the country. She said CO-AMP will work
and coordinate with these programs.
"The true measure of success will be developing long-term
continuation of the program so we don't simply meet the goals
we've set for the life of the grant, but rather we continue to
increase the numbers of minority scientists," El-Hakim said.
Fred Stein, director of Colorado State's innovative Center
for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education and a co-
principal investigator for the grant, said despite efforts in
higher education to attract and retain more minority students,
graduation rates for these groups are still alarmingly low. The
Colorado Commission on Higher Education reports that while
Hispanic, black and Native American students make up 24 percent
of students enrolled in Colorado public schools, these minorities
represent only 5 percent of university science graduates.
Stein said statistics like these show that programs to
increase diversity must start early and follow through with
support to be successful.
"If we don't link with existing programs and try to create a
pipeline in which these students can achieve success and continue
to grow, then we can't be effective in reaching our final goals,"
Stein said. "This grant will help us establish just that kind of
pipeline. The grant will also give us real numerical goals to
strive for and to measure our success against."
Stein also is director of the Comprehensive Partnership for
Minority Students Achievement with the Denver Public Schools, a
program housed in Colorado State's College of Natural Sciences.
The partnership, which promotes interest in science and
mathematics in minority students, is the kind of program that
will link with CO-AMP.
In addition to El-Hakim and Stein, Fred Smith, acting
department head for mechanical engineering, and Johannes Gessler,
associate dean for undergraduate studies, both in Colorado
State's College of Engineering, are co-principal investigators on
the grant. Hector Carrasco of the University of Southern Colorado
and German Nunez at the University of Colorado-Boulder are also
co-principal investigators on the grant.
Colorado State President Yates, who holds a doctorate in
theoretical chemical physics, said his own experiences as a
minority member who succeeded in academia convinced him of the
importance of programs like the CO-AMP.
"All students, at some point in their academic career, need
the support of those close to them to overcome difficult
obstacles and be successful," Yates told the National Science
Foundation panel.
"For ethnic minority students--many of whom have no family
history of college education and few role models in their own
community--such support is particularly important, not only from
their families but from their schools, their communities and
their home states."
Yates, in his presentation, also spoke of the importance of
promoting diversity not only to under-represented students, but
to higher education and society.
"How important is diversity to a university? Diversity, in
its myriad forms, is as essential to the university as books and
classrooms," Yates said. "Without diversity of people, ideas,
perspectives, cultures, lifestyles and more, achievement of the
university's mission is impossible. Without diversity, the
university does not reflect society. Without diversity, our
efforts to criticize and judge our world have no basis, no
foundation. In other words, without diversity, there can be no
university."
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