Colleges Unveil Plan to Draw Minority Students to Science

IRVINE —  An unprecedented $5-million statewide plan designed to draw 12,000 minority college students to science courses each year was unveiled Wednesday by a coalition of officials from the University of California, California State University and state community colleges.

The program, described by UC officials as the first of its kind in the nation, will be funded by the National Science Foundation. Dubbed California Alliance for Minority Participation in the Sciences, or CAMP, it will be geared toward attracting so-called underrepresented minorities--African-Americans, Latinos, American Indians and Pacific Islanders--to biology, engineering and the physical sciences. About 80% of the funds will go directly to students for tutoring, research, summer guidance and other needs, with the rest used for administrative purposes.

“I will never forget how hard it was for me when I was a student struggling for support,” said Eloy Rodriguez, a professor of developmental and cell biology at UC Irvine and one of CAMP’s principal planners. “This is seed money for these students. It is a way for them to discover that science is great and wonderful and that they can indeed find a future in it. It’s a way for them to feel encouraged.”

CAMP will operate out of four regional centers on UC campuses. The southern region headquarters will be at UC Irvine. UCLA will be the headquarters for south-central California, UC Santa Cruz will cover the San Joaquin Valley region, and the northern California center will be at UC Davis. The program will include students at all nine UC campuses, along with 20 branches of Cal State, more than 40 California community colleges and several private colleges.

At the news briefing at UC Irvine, Chancellor Jack Peltason called the program “unprecedented” in its goal to graduate 3,500 baccalaureate, 500 master’s and 150 doctoral students annually by the year 2000--nearly triple the current annual average.

“It is the first (such program) in the state and the first of its kind in the country,” Peltason said in announcing the grant. He also noted that such a collaborative effort by the three college systems and private colleges statewide is rare.

Other educators said the joint effort is essential at a time when the state college system has been buckling under budget pressures and cutting back on faculty and programs. They also expressed hope that CAMP will reach into elementary and high schools to spark interest among students who might otherwise be diverted from science.

“It is a good incentive especially for those who don’t have the financial capacity to pursue what they want in higher education,” said Joel Montes, co-chairman of MECHA, a Cal State Fullerton student group whose Spanish acronym means Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan. “A lot of students get discouraged once they enter college and don’t pursue the harder disciplines. They are not trained or encouraged to choose science majors.”

CAMP is modeled after a successful UC Irvine program--Howard Hughes Undergraduate Biological Sciences Minority Research and Training--which has more than 200 undergraduates participating in science classes. Like that program, CAMP will aim to nurture and mentor students.

“There has never been a science pipeline for these students,” said Manuel N. Gomez, UC Irvine’s vice chancellor of academic affairs. “This will not only expand the number of minority students in the field, it will give them a chance like never before.”

CAMP officials will identify students with potential in elementary and high schools and track them as they continue on to college. Those already in college will receive mentoring and grants for travel and research at national laboratories and industrial research sites, organizers of the program said.

College students will have to apply for the grants, which will be awarded on a competitive basis. Students can begin applying for CAMP money in January.