12 percent of the national total
Matt Nagel
Institute Communications and Public Affairs
Georgia
Tech continues to be a national leader in awarding
minority doctoral degrees, according to the latest National
Science Foundation Alliances for Graduate Education and
the Professoriate statistics.
Though several critical
programs play a role in attracting minorities to Tech
for graduate degrees, Facilitating
Academic Careers in Engineering and Science
(FACES) is one of the programs responsible for helping minority students earn
their doctorate. The program is an alliance between Tech, Emory University, Morehouse
College and Spelman College.
The FACES alliance is designed to increase the number
of African-American students receiving doctoral degrees
in engineering and science fields as well as the number
of these individuals entering the professoriate.
The 34 doctoral degrees awarded
by FACES institutions during the 2003-2004 school year
represented 12 percent of the national total. Georgia
Tech had 33 graduates,
19 of which were African-American. One student graduated from Emory.
FACES Project
Director Gary May said the program is unique “in
that it addresses each critical step along the career
path of a candidate. Also, African-American
faculty members are fully involved in all aspects of the program.”
The program
consists of three elements: recruitment and student preparation, retention
and mentoring, and future faculty development.
Undergraduate
students are given opportunities to partner with faculty
for research as part of the recruitment. Once in the
program, students are given
a fellowship
to help with retention. May believes the last element may be one of the most
crucial.
“It is a grant that we give the students to
help with their first job. We don’t attach any
conditions to it,” says May. “They can
use it for research equipment or anything that will help them get started
in an academic or research career.”
Georgia Tech
currently has about 60 fellows in the FACES program.
Thirty-one have petitioned to graduate this year.
May
also attributes the success of the program to the support
it has received among faculty and the administration.
The Institute’s dedication to FACES
starts at the top, where President Wayne Clough is the principal investigator.
“The Georgia Tech administration and faculty have done everything from
advising students to putting on programs. I think Georgia Tech takes a lot of
pride and satisfaction in these types of university efforts and I think that
is crucial to the success that we’ve enjoyed,” said May.
| 
