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Session 1470

Land Grant Research University Partnerships with HBCUs for Enhanced Undergraduate Research Opportunities Ken Vickers, Willyerd Collier, Benita Douglas Wolff, Greg Salamo University of Arkansas

Background

The University of Arkansas (UA) is a Land Grant University with the stated mission of being “a nationally competitive, student-centered research university serving Arkansas and the world”. Because of this mission, it is imperative that the University provides a nurturing environment for students from all portions of our society. Only then will we gain the benefit from the talents that exist throughout our population, including talents hidden in population segments that have not traditionally enrolled at this University (or sometimes in any post-secondary institution).

In the United States there is a tradition of strong Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that provide both a nurturing culture and strong academic preparation to students of color in our society. But many of these institutions do not support a graduate research program, instead developing relationships with graduate research institutions for post-graduate opportunities for their students.

As a research institution, the University of Arkansas has the need for strong graduate students to support its research initiatives. However, most graduate programs have not devoted the same level of attention, energy, time or resources to the recruitment of graduate students that athletic programs or enrollment services have devoted to the recruitment of undergraduate students. The result is that the student side of the search for graduate program/student matches has driven the graduate “recruitment” system.

Potential graduate students today have an advantage in finding good graduate matches because of the extensive search capability and knowledge contained in the World Wide Web. At the same time, these undergraduates also seek guidance from individuals in their home institutions concerning the general reputation of a university, college or department. Without recruitment efforts by graduate programs, undergraduate faculty lack knowledge of graduate programs at other institutions, which can limit prospective students’ confidence in accepting academic opportunities that would well support their academic and career goals.

Even with the difficulties involved, HBCU students have found and enrolled in UA graduate programs. Upon arrival on campus, they found that there existed a lower level of interaction between research faculty and students at the UA as compared to the students’ undergraduate HBCU. This change of academic operational culture, coupled with the change in workload at the graduate versus undergraduate level and the change in social factors from a black majority

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Collier, S. W., & Vickers, K., & Wolff, B., & Salamo, G. (2002, June), Land Grant Research University Partnerships With Hbcus For Enhanced Undergraduate Research Opportunities Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10356