Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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NU grad schools seek to increase student diversity

The Graduate School of Northwestern and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science presented plans last month for improving programs to promote diversity among NU graduate students.

Aiming to encourage enrollment and retention of underrepresented minority students, TGS and McCormick shared their plans at NU’s Best Practices Forum March 19. This annual event allows NU schools, departments and offices to share ideas for University improvements, said Dona Cordero, assistant provost for diversity and inclusion.

TGS will expand its partnerships with minority-serving institutions to recruit students, said Bruce Lindvall, assistant dean for graduate studies at McCormick. He said more comprehensive groups of NU faculty and staff have begun visiting schools and building stronger relationships with faculty and administrators.

Later this month TGS will welcome a group of administrators and underrepresented students from various schools for a two-day event to learn about graduate studies at NU, said Penny Warren, assistant dean of student life and multicultural affairs for TGS. The event will take place April 26 and 27, Warren said in an email.

Reaching out to faculty members at the schools from which NU is recruiting makes sense because it allows the University to build long-lasting relationships with those schools, said Lindvall, who is co-chair of the TGS Diversity Working Group’s pipeline subcommittee, which handles recruiting underrepresented students.

“If (faculty members) work with a student who applies, is admitted, comes here, then they can always refer future students to that student who’s here at Northwestern,” Lindvall said.

The Diversity Working Group focuses on recruitment, the application process and retention of underrepresented students, Warren said. Dwight McBride created the Diversity Working Group after he became dean of TGS and associate provost for graduate education in 2010, Warren said.

In terms of admissions review, Warren said the Diversity Working Group will encourage program admissions committees to take into account variables other than just test scores.

“There are other factors in underrepresented students’ lives that could give them a little bit more information about their tenacity, their determination,” Warren said.

More underrepresented students will attend NU’s Summer Research Opportunity Program this summer than last year, Lindvall said. Last year about 20 underrepresented minority students attended, and this year about 40 will participate, he said.

This eight-week research opportunity for sophomores and juniors gives students a chance to practice research before graduate school, Warren said.

Lindvall said the number of underrepresented students applying to McCormick for Ph.D. admission has increased in recent years. The school received 126 applications from underrepresented groups of students for fall 2012, compared with 70 applications for Fall 2011, he said. Personal communication with the students makes a difference, he said.

“If I get a name of a student, I write to them immediately,” Lindvall said. “If they write back to me, they get an immediate response. It’s a constant message that we’re here and we care.”

Mike Mills, associate provost for university enrollment, who oversees the enrollment of NU undergraduates , commended TGS’s diversity efforts.

“I think they’re great,”Mills said. “I hope they work. If you think about the pipeline for potential graduate and doctoral students, (it’s) a small group of students to begin with, and then it gets constricted even further when you think about how bright you have to be to get into grad school at a school like Northwestern.”

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NU grad schools seek to increase student diversity