The Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) is a National Science Foundation initiative created by Congress to increase the number of underrepresented (UREP) minority students (African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander) earning PhDs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). AGEP is particularly interested in increasing the number of minorities who will enter the professoriate in these disciplines.

Each AGEP alliance engages in substantive partnerships to develop and implement innovative models for recruiting, mentoring, and retaining minority students in STEM doctoral programs and helping those interested in academic careers to transition successfully.

The four State University of New York (SUNY) Centers that make-up the SUNY AGEP alliance are: • The University at Albany • Binghamton University • The University at Buffalo • Stony Brook University (which is the lead institution).

We work with partners in various programs, such as the SUNY Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation (LSAMP), the New York State funded Graduate Diversity Fellowship, and Brookhaven Science Associates, the organization that runs Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The initial SUNY AGEP grant was awarded in November 1999 for $2.5 million. In 2005, the project was renewed at an impressive $5.6 million to cover Phase II, marking our tenth anniversary this year.

SUNY AGEP seeks to enrich students’ academic experiences by creating an effective network of faculty, students, and administrators who embrace academic excellence and diversity. We provide a wide range of services to underrepresented minority doctoral students STEM fields as well as to the STEM departments and graduate programs.

We need to stop putting diversity in a box. #ESA2016

At the moment, I’m having an absolutely great time at the Ecological Society of America meeting. I’m learning new science, meeting old friends and a variety of folks who read this site, and formulating plans for my sabbatical that recently started. This wonderful time has been punctuated with moments of my own frustration and annoyance. Why? Because this is a typical academic conference. And the…

First Generation College Students Share Their Stories

“You need to slow down. Don’t work so hard buddy.”

“You always have to work.”

There’s more to college than work.”

“You have your whole life to work.”

“You should relax with us for a while.”  

“You’re leaving again?”

I would hear those statements and more from roommates and others who struggled to grasp the concept that I had to work my way through school.

Although the comments often came from a…

Conference report: SACNAS #SACNAS2014

Here is a detailed report on my brief experience with the SACNAS meeting, aggregated as an unordered set of observations and thoughts.

Just a short while ago, I was wondering whether my students are better served attending a disciplinary meeting, or a minority-focused conference. I was given the opportunity by SACNAS to see for myself. The comments on my earlier postwere helpful, and described my…

When are minority-focused conferences the best choice?

Sometimes, the title has a question mark. The body of the text usually has the answer to the question in the title. This is not one of those. I don’t have an answer to this question.

Have you heard of SACNAS or ABRCMS?* These organizations put on a big science conference somewhere in the US each year. (SACNAS is passing through my own city next week.)

SACNAS runs a conference for students from…

Three years ago, the “world’s largest pre-college science fair” was passing through town. I was asked to volunteer as a judge, and my university system was pleased to have a faculty member at the event. I was a student in the fair in 1988, too, so I was…

Disadvantaged students come from disadvantaged universities: how to recruit URM students

The future of research in the USA requires that we recruit the best possible scientists. As the country gets less and less white, we can’t afford to have fewer and fewer people seeing science as a valid career path. This should be self-evident.

When NSF…