College of Engineering News  |
Dr. Marcia Murry, Director of Student Learning Support in the College of Science, has accepted the position as campus coordinator for the CSU-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (CSU-LSAMP) program at Cal Poly Pomona. The CSU-LSAMP program is a California State University (CSU) system system-wide project, supported by NSF (National Science Foundation), dedicated to increasing the number of underrepresented groups graduating in STEM disciplines and to increase the number of students continuing in graduate programs. Dr. Murry succeeds the previous LSAMP Coordinator, Eric Lara and brings her experience and background of working with STEM underrepresented students.
"I am delighted to join Cal Poly's LSAMP team which includes support from two highly successful STEM programs: Maximizing Engineering Potential (MEP) headed by Mr. Milton Randle and Science Educational Enhancement Services (SEES) directed by Dr. Barbara Burke", said Murry. "These programs have provided a supportive environment for STEM students at Cal Poly achieving high retention and graduation rates and increased placement of students in graduate school."
In the past the Cal Poly Pomona LSAMP Program has been coordinated by the joint efforts and collaboration of the College of Science's SEES (Science Educational Enhancement Services) and the College of Engineering's Maximizing Engineering Potential (MEP) programs. Since 1983, the Cal Poly Pomona SEES/MEP collaborative have provided comprehensive academic support programs to science and engineering students, including the CSU LSAMP program, which began in 1992. Since 1992 NSF AMP has provided SEES/MEP students with support totaling over $1,000,000. SEES/MEP currently serves over 650 enrolled science and engineering students by providing recruitment, matriculation, summer programs orientation courses, group study workshops, study centers, advising, counseling, scholarships, employment , professional development, and graduate school preparation. Dr. Murry will continue to work with these outstanding programs in carrying out the goals and objectives of the CSU-LSAMP program.
The CSU-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (CSU-LSAMP) program at Cal Poly Pomona is currently at its Phase IV stage, having successfully completed Phase III in 2007. As a federally recognized Hispanic Serving Institution, CPP is committed to helping more of our students from traditionally under-represented groups obtain quality academic training in the disciplines covered by LSAMP. Moreover, as long-standing members of the LSAMP at the CSU, we are eager to pursue the goals expressed for Phase IV programs.
We are proud of the progress we have made in improving individual student retention and progression rates at the CSU. Our summer and academic year workshops that focus on mastery of college-level math and lower-division science requirements have helped increase the percentage of our students that enroll in upper-division STEM courses. Our graduation rates have improved too, but we recognize that there is room for improvement. With Phase IV we look forward to the additional support to reduce the remaining graduation rate gap between minority and majority students, to provide more services and research experiences to our junior and senior class-level STEM student and to increase the number of post-baccalaureate students in STEM graduate programs.
We will continue to support the campus coordination provided through our Maximizing Engineering Potential (MEP) and Science Educational Enhancement Services (SEES) programs which advise and work with the participants of the LSAMP programs.
Phase IV funding from NSF offers us a great opportunity to quicken our attainment of parity in graduation rates between minority and majority STEM students plus solidify our current efforts to increase the flow of students into graduate school. It will also help us complete the institutionalization process for the innovations and practices developed during Phase I-III of our LSAMP program.
February 2010
