The Kentucky-West Virginia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in STEM has been established with a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Under the program, nine colleges and universities in the two states will seek to increase the percentage of minority students in STEM disciplines by 15 percent by 2016. Another goal is to boost the graduation of minority students in these fields by 50 percent.
Each of the nine participating institutions will evaluate and seek to improve its performance in order to reach the alliance’s goals. But the nine institutions will also collaborate and share information on successful practices.
The nine participating institutions are the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, Western Kentucky University, West Virginia University, Centre College, Marshall University, West Virginia State University, Bluegrass Community and Technical College, and Kentucky State University.