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strate feasibility to the minority students and show the non-minorities that we as minorities can be excellent teachers and faculty. We promote understanding in components that non-minority faculty members cannot.

I want to make what I believe is an often-overlooked critical point about the importance of minority faculty at our best research universities. Leadership in science and engineering comes from top research institutions. I believe that much of my national leadership has been possible because I am a faculty member at a respected university with respected research credentials. I am often asked to speak to research university presidents, faculty members, and national government leaders about representation. They listen to me because they know that I have been there. We must have strong faculty representation at the nation’s leading universities in order to produce high quality URM scientists. Consequently, I strongly encourage us to create more programs and invest more funding with the goal of developing minority faculty at research universities.

 

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What Won’t Work

There is a growing movement for Mi-
nority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to de-
velop Ph.D. programs, but Ph.D.s pro-
duced at MSIs will not become faculty at
top research universities. Top research
universities choose faculty from Ph.D.s
produced at top research universities. I
am extremely concerned that this will
produce a permanent underclass. If we
underrepresented minorities are ever
to be an equitable presence as faculty
at our top-level schools, then our stu-
dents must be schooled at those same
institutions. This is a hard statement
for me to make. I have great friends at
MSIs for whom I have great admira-
tion. Their students speak warmly of
how confident and supported they felt
in their experiences there. Research
universities should learn from them
how to nurture that kind of confidence,
but MSIs should not expect to produce
graduate programs of the same caliber
that more than a hundred years of in-
vestment has produced at the nation’s
top research universities. More about
this topic can be found in my Chronicle
of Higher Education article, “Minor-
ity Students and Research Universities:
How to Overcome the ‘Mismatch’.” 2

the post-doc position
may be the most
critical step in either
making or breaking
a successful future
in the academy.