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March 13, 1997 Contact: Robert Irion (408) 459-2495; irion@ua.ucsc.edu

UCSC RECEIVES RENEWED FUNDING FOR MINORITY SCIENCE SUPPORT PROGRAM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--The National Science Foundation (NSF) has renewed its support of a University of California effort to increase the number of science degrees awarded to underrepresented minority students. Called the California Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP), the initiative has drawn $1 million per year from NSF since its inception in 1992. Now, NSF has committed to the same annual level of funding for five more years.

As one of eight regional centers for the project, UC Santa Cruz will receive $75,000 of the federal funds to continue its own CAMP programs in 1997. A further pledge of $25,000 from the UC Regents' Diversity Initiative fund will give the campus $100,000 for its innovative CAMP activities.

"CAMP is one of the country's most successful alliances for minority participation in the sciences," said associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry Glenn Millhauser, the program's regional director at UCSC. "We have come up with several uses of CAMP funding at UCSC that we feel have helped our students succeed in their science educations."

Those uses are as follows:

-- Summer research stipends for students, allowing them to work in the laboratories of UCSC scientists without worrying about earning wages off campus. Between 10 and 20 CAMP participants, mostly current students or incoming transfer students, work with researchers in biology, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, physics, and other disciplines.

-- Stipends for successful students in the ACE (ACademic Excellence) program to return as tutors in science and mathematics classes. ACE, funded by the Chancellor's Office and the Natural Sciences Division, provides extra discussion groups and tutoring for minority science students. Sponsoring the best of these students as tutors, said Millhauser, is a CAMP effort unique to UCSC. "One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it yourself," he said. "It really cements a student's knowledge in that discipline."

-- A collaborative effort with MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement), primarily at Cabrillo College, to bring community college students and their instructors to UCSC in the summer for faculty seminars, science field trips, library and computer instruction, and other activities. Each student receives a stipend to defray the cost of being away from other jobs. "We find that these programs really lower the fear that many minority science students have about transferring to a four-year university," Millhauser said. "The feedback from students and their instructors has been fabulous."

-- Funds to send advanced CAMP students to conferences, where they present talks or posters about their research. This exposure allows students to see how scientific meetings work and to make connections with scientists and students at other institutions.

Headquartered at UC Irvine, CAMP funds the participation of about 2,000 students each year. The CAMP regional centers, based at the eight general-education UC campuses, share the goal of doubling the number of California minority students with degrees in science and engineering. Recent statistics show that those numbers are indeed rising. For instance, the number of minority science graduates from the University of California rose from 573 in 1989- 90 to 896 in 1994-95. At UCSC, the numbers increased from 42 to 89 in those same years.

However, Millhauser said, it's impossible to isolate the possible effects of CAMP from many other ongoing campus efforts. Those programs, many of which have existed for more than a decade, include ACE, Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) and Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS), Minority International Research Training (MIRT), special initiatives sponsored by the Computer Engineering and Chemistry and Biochemistry Departments, and other activities offered through UCSC's Educational Opportunity Programs Office.

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Editor's note: You may reach Millhauser at glennm@chemistry.ucsc.edu or (408) 459-2176.

This release is also available on the World Wide Web at UCSC's "Services for Journalists" site (http://www.ucsc.edu/news/journalist.html).



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