Nation’s Largest Convening of Minority Ph.D. Scholars
Institute on Teaching and Mentoring draws 1,300 doctoral students, faculty members
Atlanta, GA — Almost 1,300 minority doctoral students,
faculty members and education leaders from across the country
convene in Atlanta this week to focus on issues that face
new and aspiring faculty members of color. The goal of the
Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, the largest gathering of
minority Ph.D. scholars in the nation, is to address the
shortage of minority faculty in college classrooms and labs
around the nation.
WHO: The doctoral students and new faculty members from
underrepresented minority groups, from more than 40 states
and almost 100 fields of study at almost 300 institutions of
higher education.
The Southern Regional Education Board State Doctoral
Scholars Program hosts and manages the Institute on Teaching
and Mentoring, which is sponsored by a partnership of
regional, federal and foundation programs called the Compact
for Faculty Diversity.
WHAT: The annual Institute on Teaching and
Mentoring provides strategies and support for doctoral
students and new college professors, who learn how to
survive the rigors of graduate school and succeed as faculty
members in sessions on topics ranging from how to get published
to how to be a great mentor. Attendees say the Institute gives
them skills to overcome barriers and motivates them for the
challenges of the coming year.
WHY: The mission behind the conference is to increase the
number of ethnic and racial minority faculty members on college
and university campuses.
More than one-third of America’s college students are people of
color, but too few minority graduates go on to earn
doctorates. The Class of 2019 at U.S. public
high schools is projected to be 46 percent non-white, up
from 38 percent in 2009. Yet only about 5 percent of U.S.
college and university faculty are African-American, 3 percent
are Hispanic and 1 percent are Native American.