Purdue President Challenges Universities to Increase Fellowships for Minority Graduate Students
San Antonio, Texas
Dr. Martin C. Jischke, president of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., last month challenged America’s universities to establish fellowships to increase the numbers of minority graduate students preparing to be the faculty of the future.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges here, Jischke announced he will establish an annual fellowship at Purdue.
Purdue’s fellowships, named for George Washington Carver, will be given to graduate students from historically Black institutions and Hispanic-serving or tribal colleges. The awards will go to students interested in pursuing careers as professors. Jischke says the program would address a national shortage of minority faculty members, especially in engineering and the sciences.
“If each of the 212 NASULGC members were to fund one such fellowship [each year] and focus it in areas such as science, engineering and mathematics, we could nearly double the number of Ph.D.s earned annually by persons of color,” Jischke said in his speech. “It’s time — putting it bluntly — to put our money where our mouth is.”
He also called for strong support of minority institutions, many of them created through the 1890 U.S. Land-Grant Act.
Founded in 1887, NASULGC has 212 member institutions, including 17 historically Black colleges and universities and 30 tribal colleges.
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