GRADUATE STUDENTS
STRATEGY B: DEVELOP PROGRAMS FOR IMPROVING THE PIPELINE OF PhD STUDENTS BY BUILDING ON EXISTING UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL Several units within Dietrich College have taken steps to improve the pipeline of students applying to their graduate programs. These programs provide initiatives that recruit undergraduates into summer programs that allow them to interact with CMU faculty and to learn about or engage in research with them. These programs reflect individual departments’ initiatives, but this work has not been cemented into an overarching infrastructure within the College. As such, common knowledge is not uniformly shared. These programs offer the College an opportunity to reduce the hurdles to mounting these initiatives and leverage economies of scale by centralizing some of the common, logistical aspects related to housing, meals and opportunities for social interaction and community building. Centralized logistical support also facilitates the coordination of different programs so that students attending programs from different departments or units might have the opportunity to meet and build relationships across disciplinary boundaries. Further, we recommend that existing programs be expanded through core, centralized funding—equally distributed across all participating units (at present some units receive support for such programs and other units do not). Finally, programs could partner with a list of Minority Serving Institutions maintained by the Department of Education as well as Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Centralizing certain aspects of these programs might also create a focus for funding that would attract support from donors or sponsors. Institutional support for fundraising and financial support would ensure the long-run sustainability of such programs. • Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute: 10-week summer research and training experience for undergraduates in computational neuroscience. • History: Joe Trotter and Nico Slate ran a week-long summer program in 2019 for eight students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. • Philosophy: Summer Logic and Formal Epistemology for undergraduate students. Previous support from NSF has helped fund this program for two years. Additional costs have been covered by the department ($20,000 each year) and the Provost’s Office ($5,000). • Psychology: Program in Interdisciplinary Education Research (PIER) and the Research Experience for Undergraduates (transitioning to non-PIER). • Statistics & Data Science: Summer Undergraduate Research Experience in Statistics provides participants with hands-on experience working with data to solve real-world problems in a stimulating, collaborative and supportive environment. • Social and Decision Sciences: The C enter for Behavioral Decision Research runs an internship program where undergraduate students participate in research projects and attend lectures by faculty and PhD students in similar research areas. STRATEGY C: FIFTH-YEAR MASTERS BRIDGE PROGRAM There exists a pool of potential applicants to our PhD programs who are very talented but do not yet have sufficient background experience to succeed at CMU. Dietrich College (and the university) should work toward establishing a one-year bridge-to-PhD post-baccalaureate or master’s program. This would be similar to the Hot Metal Bridge Program in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, which brings in nine to 11 students per year, depending on funding, and has a success rate of 80% of the participants continuing on to graduate school. Although not all participants go to Pitt for their doctoral work, we might assume the same numbers at CMU. The idea is that each department would help in recruiting students and be partners in ensuring their success. Dietrich (and, ideally, the university) would contribute substantially, both financially and administratively, throughout the process. Each department would design the most relevant curriculum for each student and would supply mentors as needed.
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DIETRICH COLLEGE DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION PLAN
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