Collaborative Research: The Access Network: Supporting Retention and Representation in Physics Through an Alliance of Campus-Based Diversity Programs

该奖项支持扩大和丰富加州大学伯克利分校COMPASS项目的努力，该项目旨在改善教育和保留代表性不足的学生（主要是物理专业）。有五所大学基于COMPASS模式开设了类似的项目：科罗拉多大学博尔德分校、马里兰大学帕克分校、罗切斯特理工学院、芝加哥州立大学和亚利桑那州立大学。这个项目将这些机构和加州大学伯克利分校联合起来，形成一个接入网络，旨在通过共享专业知识来开发最佳实践。Access网络将通过创新战略，在新环境下建立类似指南针的项目，支持旨在改善物理多样性和可及性的项目的开发。该网络将加强每个站点的努力，建立启动新项目的最佳实践知识，并与物理社区分享这些知识。对该项目的有力评估将确定该网络对支持多样性项目的影响，以及它如何有助于传播成功的战略和项目要素。接入网将：(a)授权学生和教师——特别是那些来自边缘化和/或代表性不足群体的学生和教师——作为设计、实施和迭代改进保留工作的代理人；(b)促进参与这些努力的人之间的沟通和社区；(c)创建和维护材料和策略的存储库，所有这些都是为了(d)支持当地社区将这些材料和项目元素适应其独特的环境和人口。为了实现这些目标，该项目将开展以下活动：(1)成员计划的年度大会，(2)通过定期电话会议和机构间旅行进行项目间沟通，(3)记录地方和机构间的创新，以及(4)综合和传播成员计划的教育材料。

This award supports an effort to expand and enrich the COMPASS program at UC Berkeley, which is aimed at improving the education and retention of under-represented students (primarily in Physics). There are five universities with similar programs based on the COMPASS model: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Maryland College Park, Rochester Institute of Technology, Chicago State University, and Arizona State University. This project joins these institutions and UC Berkeley to form the Access Network, designed to develop best practices through shared expertise. The Access network will support the development of programs intended to improve diversity and access in physics by innovating strategies to build Compass-like programs in new contexts. The network will enhance the efforts of each individual site, build knowledge of best practices for launching new programs, and share this knowledge with the physics community. A robust evaluation of the project will identify the impact of the network on supporting diversity programs and how it contributes to the dissemination of successful strategies and program elements.The Access network will: (a) empower students and faculty - especially those from marginalized and/or underrepresented groups - as agents in the design, implementation, and iterative improvement of retention efforts, (b) facilitate communication and community among those involved in such efforts, and (c) create and maintain a repository of materials and strategies, all in order to (d) support local communities in adapting these materials and program elements to their unique contexts and populations. To achieve these goals, the project will engage in the following activities: (1) an annual assembly of the member programs, (2) inter-program communication through regular conference calls and inter-institutional travel, (3) documentation of local and inter-institutional innovations, and (4) synthesis and dissemination of member programs' educational materials.