Dr. Larry Robinson, president of Florida A&M University
During a session at this week’s annual meeting of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), university leaders shared strategies from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to better support underrepresented students and faculty in STEM.
“There is clearly a great need for us as individuals and as a society to increase our minority and student of color STEM graduates,” said Peter McPherson, president of APLU, a higher education research and advocacy organization. “It seems to me that these deep concerns we’ve had for a long time have a real opportunity now. This question has caught the imagination and attention of so many people.”
McPherson pointed to the anticipated boost in federal funding to MSIs that Congress included in a social spending bill expected to pass soon. He also brought up the increased public dialogue on diversity, equity, and inclusion. To diversify STEM more, McPherson said that “fuller, broader” partnerships between MSIs and other institutions are needed at this time.
A 2011 report from the National Academies highlighted a severe lack of minority participation in science, technology, and engineering. Yet ten years later, there has been a minimal increase in diversity among STEM majors and graduates. But MSIs, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), have led the way in trying to buck this trend. Almost 30% of Black graduates of science and engineering doctoral programs came from HBCUs, for example.
Dr. Larry Robinson, the president of Florida A&M University (FAMU), one of the country’s largest HBCUs, and a former chemist, spoke to why underrepresented students in STEM matters.
“We need students in our world to address problems facing the communities they are from,” said Robinson, adding that the pandemic’s disproportionate toll on communities of color shined a light on that need. “We know there are tremendous health disparities, so we want our students to go out and solve those problems. It’s not only what students can do for themselves but also for the state and the nation.”
