Dr. Andrew Grosovsky says he knows that bringing students of color into STEM is not enough — seeing them graduate is what matters.
Seven years later, Boston’s only public university has achieved both goals, despite competition from MIT, Harvard and other private universities that fuel the growing technology sector of the area’s economy. Enrollment in the College of Mathematics and Science at UMass Boston has nearly doubled and, at the same time, become majority-minority. About 56 percent of the students are of color, with 35 percent enrollment from minorities who are underrepresented in STEM.
“We have the most diverse college at UMass Boston, which is not that typical for STEM. We have all kinds of diversity,” says Dr. Andrew Grosovsky, dean of the College of Mathematics and Science. “Half of our students are women, which is a huge thing for STEM. We have a lot of language diversity, a tremendous amount of first-generation [students] and economically disadvantaged folks.”
In 2010, Forbes rated the best colleges for underrepresented minorities in STEM, based on whether student diversity in those fields matched the school’s overall enrollment. Of the 20 schools that made the list, two are comparable to UMass Boston — the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Georgia Southern University.
Today, in comparison, UMass Boston would break into the top 20 because its enrollment of underrepresented minorities in STEM slightly exceeds 32 percent of the entire student body.
But Grosovsky says he knows that bringing students of color into STEM is not enough — seeing them graduate is what matters. On that measure, UMass Boston also appears to be making progress.
About 40 percent of those STEM freshmen who entered in 2009 benefited from new academic support services and graduated after four years, nearly all in STEM fields — a degree completion rate comparable to the national level. Grosovsky estimates a
