The National Science Foundation is partnering with a group of prestigious research universities in an effort to increase the number of underrepresented minority faculty members in mathematics, physical and earth sciences, and engineering fields. The alliance will provide underrepresented minority doctoral and postdoctoral students training opportunities to learn and network at partner institutions, conduct research exchange visits, and develop resources for placement, hiring, and advancement of these students into faculty positions.
The participating research institutions are the University of California Berkeley, the University of California Los Angeles, Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
“U.S. universities and colleges struggle to recruit, retain and promote underrepresented STEM faculty members who serve as role models and academic leaders for students,” said Marvin L. Hackert, associate dean of the Graduate Schoo at the University of Texas at Austin. “This alliance has the potential not just to improve the career pathway success of underrepresented minority doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars, but to improve overall academic mentorship for graduate students and postdocs.”
Could there have been a on-to-one ratio amongst the HWCUs and HBCUs for partnering with the NSF? This appears to be the neglect that has taken place for decades. Examples are the demise of the Negro Leagues in sports as well as the selection of high school athletes to the HWCUs avoiding the HBCUs as being inferior. There should be a strengthening of all institutions by the government not gutting one for the other.
This resembles busing of students for a better education in lieu of strengthening the students immediate learning environment. As we know, busing deprived many of time to get to and from the education environment, which caused many hardships for families in order for their children to get an adequate education. Now let us fast forward. It is rare to see one leaving an HWCU for an HBCU, but the reverse can be found easily. This form of White supremacy practiced by our government must end.