Lois Harmon, Michael Gottfried, Hsiu-Zu Ho, and Charles Williams, all integral parts of the UC-HBCU team
Michael Gottfried and Hsiu-Zu Ho of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School have been awarded an UC-Historically Black Colleges & Universities (UC-HBCU) Initiative Grant for the program “Summer Institute in Educational Research and Policy.” This Institute, which will take place in 2015, is a collaboration among four partners--the UCSB Gevirtz School, the Department of Black Studies and Center for Black Studies Research at UCSB, and the College of Education (COE) at Florida A&M University (FAMU) in Tallahassee, Florida. A great strength of the program will be that two members of the Mentorship team are former UC-HBCU Interns who are currently Ph.D. students in the Department of Education--Lois Harmon and Charles Williams.
Through both academic and extracurricular activities, the Summer Institute will provide students from FAMU with preparation for graduate school and doctoral work and will specifically encourage them to apply to and highly consider a UC graduate program. Additionally, through extracurricular networking, the Summer Institute will expose students to the many opportunities that UCSB has to offer.
“We believe that collaboration between the University of California, Santa Barbara and FAMU COE is a perfect match, due to our similar missions and programs,” Dean Patricia Green-Powell wrote in her support letter for the project from FAMU. “Although the universities are not close in proximity, technology affords us the opportunity to work side-by-side in building a partnership that can effectively utilize the resources of both institutions to address our particular needs. We wholeheartedly believe in the goal of the UC-HBCU Initiative which is to increase the number of scholars from HBCUs enrolling in UC academic doctoral programs.”
The University of California’s reputation as a premier research and teaching institution rests on its capacity to serve the State of California, and nation, at the highest levels. This requires attracting and graduating scholars who reflect the communities of the world. At the graduate level African Americans/Blacks are extremely under-represented in UC graduate and professional programs. The five-year average (2008-2012) for enrollment of African Americans in UC academic doctoral programs is 2.6%.
The UC-HBCU Initiative seeks to improve the representation of this population in UC graduate programs, particularly Ph.D. programs, by investing in relationships and efforts between UC faculty and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The University of California recognizes the unique and important contributions that Historically Black Colleges and Universities make to the academy, our nation and the world. Through the UC-HBCU Initiative, the Office of the President encourages UC faculty to actively engage in collaboration and cooperation with faculty and students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Such efforts will serve to strengthen and enrich our mission of teaching, research and public service.