MAA Online: "Best Practices" testimony on Increasing the Participation of Minorities in Advanced Mathematics

Best Practices: Increasing the Participation of Minorities in Advanced Mathematics

Organization: Mathematical Association of America (MAA)

Contacts:
Dr. Marcia Sward, Executive Director of MAA
msward@maa.org
Dr. William A. Hawkins, Director of SUMMA program
bhawkins@maa.org
Dr. Robert E. Megginson,co-chair of Committee on Minority Participation in Mathematics
meggin@math.lsa.umich.edu
1529 18th St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-387-5200

Organizational need: To expand the pool of qualified mathematicians by nurturing the talents of minority mathematics undergraduates and encouraging them to seek graduate degrees.

Target group: Undergraduates, specifically incoming juniors or seniors, majoring in mathematics or a closely related field who are members of minority groups underrepresented in mathematics.

Program: MAA National Program for Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Mathematics.

Description: This program, although in its earliest planning stages, is modeled on one already being conducted for Hispanic American and Native American students by the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science in collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao. Its goal is to provide undergraduate minority students majoring in mathematics or a closely related field with challenging research experiences that will increase their interest in obtaining advanced degrees in mathematics. The features of the program as it is currently envisioned would include the following.

Students in the program will be brought to one site to participate in a six-week summer program of mathematical study and research. Benefits: By conducting the program at one central site rather than at various regional locations, resources can be pooled. Also, the larger number of participants at one location will help the students see that there are many others from backgrounds similar to their own who are succeeding in mathematics, and will help them form a greater number of acquaintances and linkages that will be of value to them later in their careers.

The students will be provided with round-trip travel to the central site, room and board during the program, and a stipend of about $2000 to offset part of the students? loss of summer earnings while attending the program. Benefit: The students targeted by this program will come from low-income groups, and in many cases would not be able to participate if the program were to have a significant financial impact on them.

Each student will begin the program by attending one intensive three-week introductory workshop on a topic that is not a standard part of the undergraduate curriculum but that is accessible to students who have had a particular proof-based mathematics course beyond calculus, such as a first course in real analysis, abstract algebra, or proof-based linear algebra. Several such workshops will be conducted simul-taneously. For each student, the research experience in the second half of the program will be based on the particular workshop attended by the student. The MAA already publishes a number of books that could be used as texts and resources for these workshops, such as Robert McLeod's The Generalized Riemann Integral and David Barnette's Map Coloring, Polyhedra, and the Four-Color Problem. Benefit: This will accommodate the diverse mathematical backgrounds of the participants. Each will have had at least one proof-based mathematics course beyond calculus as a prerequisite for being in the program, but requiring a particular course of this type before participation, such as a first course in real analysis, would reduce the pool of potential participants significantly because of the wide variations in curricula and the order in which courses are taken in undergraduate mathematics programs.

In the second half of the program, each student will work on an open-ended individual research project based on the material in the workshop attended by the student in the first part of the program. Each project will be stated in enough generality that the student can choose from a number of different directions of exploration. The goal of these projects will not necessarily be to produce original, publishable results, although we do not discount the possibility that this could occasionally happen. Students working on related projects will be encouraged to share ideas and brainstorm together, but each will be held responsible for having the main results of the project be primarily his or her own. Benefit: This will help the students understand what research mathematicians actually do for a living, and will introduce them to the excitement of creating mathematics rather than just solving exercises from textbooks.

Students will work out their research projects under the supervision of mentors who will, where possible, be from backgrounds similar to those of the students. Each mentor will supervise a number of students working in similar areas. Benefits: This exposes the students to role models who can show them that persons from backgrounds similar to their own can succeed in mathematics. It also creates mentoring relationships that can later be continued by e-mail or, where possible, by direct contact, particularly if a student should choose to pursue graduate study at the mentor's academic institution.

Each week, a minority mathematician will be brought in to give a seminar talk on a subject accessible to the students and to meet with the students and discuss careers in mathematics with them. Benefits: This brings the students into contact with additional role models and potential mentors.

All students will be funded to attend a professional conference during the regular academic year at which they can present the results of their research projects. A number of such opportunities exist, such as national conferences of the National Association of Mathematicians, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. Opportunities for such presentations could also be provided at national and sectional meetings of the MAA. Benefits: This offers the students a forum for the presentation of their work, and brings them into further contact with role models, potential mentors, and other mathematics professionals.

Date started: Although the MAA's program is still in the early planning stages, the similar one conducted by SACNAS has now been in operation since the summer of 1998.

Critical success factors in implementation: Those conducting the program must be aggressive in identifying and recruiting potential participants, as well as mathematicians from minority groups who can work in the program and act as role models and mentors. Obtaining funding is, of course, a crucial factor.

Resource investment: This will vary greatly, depending on the size and specifics of the program. However, a reasonable estimate would be about $4900 per student (consisting of $2000 for the stipend, $300 for round-trip travel to the summer program, $1900 for room and board figured at $45 per day for 42 days of dormitory-style accommodations, $200 for books and miscellaneous supplies, and $500 to attend a conference for presentation of results), as well as funding for facilities and roughly one project staff member for each five students.

Development time: The planning for each summer's program should begin about a year in advance.

Minimum implementation time for impact: The initial impact would be about two years from the time of the first summer program, as some of the students from the program begin to show up in graduate programs in mathematics. The main payoff would be about seven years after the first summer program, when students would begin receiving their mathematics doctorates and entering the academic and industrial workforce.

Critical success factors in replication: These are similar to those factors essential for successful implementation of the initial program, namely, aggressive recruitment of participants and staff as well as adequate funding.