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HARVARD SYMPOSIUM:
A University's Brainstorming Session Produces Solutions
At the end of the day, teams from individual universities came back together to share solutions to particular problems. In the example below, members of a team from a large research university in the Northeast brainstormed about ways to increase the numbers of underrepresented minority (URM) students participating in research opportunities on their campus.
THE PROBLEM
Although about 80 percent of all undergraduates participate in paid research opportunities, URM students—who represent 17 percent of students in the sciences—participate in only 10 percent of the research opportunities. The director of the university’s minority education office said that, while students generally reported making four to six attempts to land a research position in a lab, many minority students gave up after the first rejection. An exception: A Latino student who applied to 14 labs because she understood that all professors were busy. “But most of my peers don’t realize that,” she explained.
During the brainstorming session, team members developed possible solutions:
- Academic advisers could play a role explaining how to apply for these positions or even making direct connections between students and faculty.
- The university could hold a seminar during a freshman course to explain that it takes several tries to find a position in a lab, and that rejections from faculty are not personal but stem from time, space, and resource limitations.
- To increase the numbers of faculty who can accept students for paid research, the university could earmark a small portion of a professor’s start-up funding specifically for undergraduate research.
- Local biotechnology companies could be approached to sponsor research opportunities for minority students.
A biology professor noted at the end of the brainstorming session: “A little bit of effort here might make a huge difference.”
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