Bringing underrepresented groups into mathematics

Mathematics departments honored for outstanding efforts

Providence, RI---The Committee on the Profession (CoProf) of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) has announced the selection of two outstanding mathematics department programs to be designated as Mathematics Programs that Make a Difference. For 2009 the honored programs are the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University, and the Department of Mathematics at the University of Mississippi.

"These two departments have outstanding records in recruiting members of underrepresented groups and mentoring them to successfully complete their graduate degrees," said Alejandro Adem of the University of British Columbia, chair of CoProf and of the selection committee for the award. "The AMS Committee on the Profession was extremely impressed with their accomplishments, which can serve as a model for other departments in the United States."

Diversity a Priority: NCSU's Department of Statistics

Caption: These are members of the department of statistics at North Carolina State University. Credit: Photo by Marc Hall, courtesy of the NCSU Department of Statistics. Usage Restrictions: Contact for permission to publish this photograph: Sastry G. Pantula Pantula@stat.ncsu.edu.

The Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University (NCSU) has made diversity of students and faculty a top priority. Out of 40 faculty in the department, 11 are female, 3 are African-American, and 2 are Hispanic. In the past 10 years, 15 minority students have received master's degrees and 2 have received Ph.D.s. The department has about 160 graduate students, including 9 African-Americans and 4 Hispanics; over 50 percent are female.

The department's approach includes communication with faculty at other institutions, active and sustained recruiting of minority students, and careful mentoring. NCSU has cultivated ties to other institutions, in particular historically black colleges and universities, as well as to organizations such as the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Through such connections, NCSU has reached undergraduate students interested in advanced work in statistics and provided them with information to decide whether NCSU is a good fit for them for graduate school. A co-Director of Graduate Programs, Pam Arroway travels extensively to various small colleges and summer programs to recruit students and to network and maintain strong relationships with their mentors.

Once students are recruited into the graduate program, they benefit from extensive mentoring from faculty advisors. Each new student is also assigned to a more-advanced student who acts as a mentor, or "stat buddy". A key figure in the department's mentoring efforts has been faculty member Kimberly Weems, who organizes many social activities for minority students and meets individually with them to ensure their successful progress through the program.

Caption: These are members of the University of Mississippi department of mathematics. Credit: University of Mississippi Department of Mathematics. Usage Restrictions: Contact for permission to use this photograph: Gerard Buskes mmbuskes@olemiss.edu.

Setting the student-centered tone is department head Sastry Pantula, who has twice been selected for a university diversity award. Other department faculty have received similar recognition, including Weems and Jackie Hughes-Oliver. Recently a graduate student in the department, Anthony Franklin, received a university diversity award for his support of students and for recruiting new students of all backgrounds.

This dynamic department has pursued and received many grants, including two National Science Foundation VIGRE grants that proved crucial in supporting minority students. Recently the department received an S-STEM (Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) grant from the NSF, which will provide scholarships for United States undergraduate and graduate students with financial need. The department participates in many existing diversity programs, workshops, and conferences, and also designs and hosts some of its own. Some of the more recent such events are StatFest, Infinite Possibilities Conference, a Pipeline Workshop for Faculty of Women's Colleges and Minority Institutions, and Building Future Faculty. NCSU's long-term commitment, with strong support from its administration, is making a difference in diversity in the mathematical sciences.

Nurturing African-American Mathematicians: University of Mississippi's Department of Mathematics

The southern United States is home to many of the nation's African-Americans, and yet the universities in that part of the country have not historically been large producers of African-American Ph.D.s in mathematics. But the University of Mississippi (UM) has started to reverse this trend, becoming a national leader in nurturing and mentoring African-Americans in doctoral study. Over the past decade, 11 African-Americans have received mathematics doctorates from Ole Miss. That the university was once a symbol of educational segregation in the United States gives this success story special importance.

Since 2001, the UM mathematics department has received two GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) grants from the U.S. Department of Education; the grants provide fellowships for graduate study. The fellowships proved to be transformational for the department, allowing it to quadruple the number of graduate students and to ensure that they are financially well supported. At the same time the department worked diligently to provide more careful nurturing of its graduate student population, both in research and in professional development.

Contributions to these achievements were made by the entire UM mathematics department, including 10 faculty who have served as GAANN dissertation advisors. Among the key leaders have been the co-principal investigators of the GAANN grants, Gerard Buskes and Donald Cole. As an African-American faculty member and assistant to the chancellor for multicultural affairs, Cole has been a role model and mentor for the African-American graduate students, while Buskes serves as advisor and mentor to the GAANN students. Buskes eloquently described the department's efforts in an article, "Mississippi Mathematics Renaissance," which appeared in the January 2007 issue of the Notices of the AMS. This article celebrated a high point in the department's efforts, the awarding of Ph.D.s to six African-Americans in 2006, which is the largest cohort of African-American mathematics Ph.D.'s ever produced at any university in the United States.

In her nomination letter, Sylvia Bozeman of Spelman College, winner of the 2008 AAAS Mentor Award, wrote this regarding the department's work recruiting and retaining students from underrepresented groups: "It is this visionary effort, by all involved, and the resulting unprecedented success that deserves to be set forth as a model for other departments who are more hesitant to attempt change. The testimony of the leadership at Ole Miss as to how the influx of minority and female students with high academic goals transformed the department and the atmosphere therein should be amplified as other graduate departments contemplate the call for more student diversity." ###

See the citation for more information on these two programs at www.ams.org/employment/citation2009. Photographs are available upon request.

CoProf created the Mathematics Programs that Make a Difference designation in 2005 as a way to bring recognition to outstanding programs that successfully address the issue of underrepresented groups in mathematics. Read more, including information about programs that have been recognized, at www.ams.org/employment/makeadiff.

Find out more about AMS and AMS-affiliated prizes at www.ams.org/prizes-awards.

Contacts: Mike Breen or Annette Emerson, AMS Public Awareness Officers Telephone: 401-455-4000 Email: paoffice@ams.org

Sastry G. Pantula, Professor Head, Department of Statistics and Director, Institute of Statistics North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8203 Tel: (919) 515-1949 Email: Pantula@stat.ncsu.edu

Gerard Buskes, Professor Department of Mathematics University of Mississippi University, MS 38677 Tel: 662-915-7425 Email: mmbuskes@olemiss.edu

Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the more than 30,000-member American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.

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