The sciences depend on a diverse and fresh group of minds to ensure continued progress, yet the scientific community still lacks a breadth of representation. There are encouraging signs of progress: several institutions across the country have fostered highly successful programs based on the mentoring of underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students. The success of these hands-on programs depends on the dedication of faculty, administrators and students and in this spirit of institution-wide commitment, the first of three planned Symposia on Diversity in the Sciences was held at Harvard in November of 2005.
Intense interest in this topic brought together over 200 participants representing faculty, students and administrators of 42 institutions. Eveylnn Hammonds, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard University, opened the first session of the two-day program, introducing keynote speaker Freeman Hrabowski. Dr. Hrabowski is the president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, home of the Meyerhoff Scholars program, one of the country’s most successful programs for minority students interested in science. He has written several books on the challenges faced by African American students and strategies to overcome those obstacles.
Participants arrived well prepared and primed for change, having gathered relevant institutional data on underrepresented minority participation in undergraduate science programs at their schools. Each institution also set goals and created an action plan aimed at increasing diversity in the sciences. Building on this preliminary work, participants attended presentations on creating and evaluating the success of mentoring/retention programs, their lasting impact on students and funding opportunities for such programs.
The second day culminated in a series of small group sessions for participants to discuss and exchange ideas. Applying a role-specific approach, sessions focused on the perspectives of students, faculty and administrators, allowing them to broach more detailed subjects beyond generalizations that may be needed to bridge the different roles. Participants also met with peers facing similar institutional concerns. During the small group sessions, participants recorded key discussion points regarding goals, challenges, and strategies, and generated recommendations to be implemented across the roles.
Additional Symposia on Diversity in the Sciences took place in April 2006 at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and October 2006 at the University of Washington.