Mathematical Sciences: Increasing Minority Participation in Mathematics at the Collegiate Level and Beyond

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An expansion of an extensive effort at the University of California Berkeley to attract, encourage and increase minority participation in the mathematical sciences will be supported by this award. The genesis of the project lies in the Professional Development Program at the university. This program was begun in 1974 to enrich the mathematics-based professions with minorities and women who could perform at levels of leadership. Focus up to 1989 was on transforming the accomplishments of minority students in freshman calculus from failure to success. The success of the effort has enabled significant numbers to graduate with majors in engineering, science and mathematics. This success has led to similar programs at other institutions such as the Universities of Illinois and Texas. This award is directed toward raising the sights of the PDP to that of directing promising minority undergraduates into science careers. At this point, few pursue upper-division mathematics courses far enough to experience the deductive emphasis which gives these courses such a different character from the computationally-oriented lower-division mathematics courses. The program funded by the award has three parts. First, is a six week residential research summer school designed to inspire and help prepare minority undergraduates who have excelled in lower division work. The activity is designed to motivate them to continue their studies and eventually complete a Ph.D. degree in either mathematics or a closely-related field. A long-range research program will be conducted by the PDP staff aimed at better understanding the factors that lead students to enroll in pivotal mathematics courses, understanding why they continue to study mathematics and why they enter mathematics-related fields. Finally, work will be done to increase the number of faculty actively working on improving minority student performance and persistence in mathematics at all levels. A special focus will be developing a cadre of research mathematicians who can serve as effective mentors and graduate dissertation advisors to alumni of the summer school experiences. Students will be selected nationally through advertisements in major professional journals, personal contacts, direct mailing to department heads and announcements at national mathematics and education conferences. Seminars held during the term of the summer school will be led by active mathematicians carefully selected for their strong interest in working with minority students. Special colloquium talks will be scheduled regularly. In addition, the strongest student participants will be brought to the national meeting of the Mathematical Association of America/American Mathematical Society in San Francisco in January, 1991.