Lincoln University is one of eight Missouri schools sharing a $5 million National Science Foundation grant to increase the number of minority students graduating with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) degrees by 125 percent over the next five years.
The schools' 15-page proposal to the NSF doesn't spell out any specific distribution plan for the money but explains in some detail how each school will use its share.
"The MoLSAMP Alliance will deploy a variety of activities - and establish a logical cohesiveness among the individual campuses - to promote recruitment, retention and graduation of URM (underrepresented minorities) students with a goal of increasing the current number of yearly URM STEM graduates from 283 per year (in academic year 2015) to 636 by 2021," the Missouri schools told the foundation.
LSAMP is the National Science Foundation's "Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation" program.
The other public, four-year schools in the Missouri LSAMP Alliance are Harris-Stowe State University, St. Louis; the University of Missouri-Columbia; the University of Missouri-St. Louis; the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg; and Truman State University, Kirksville.
Their proposal to the NSF notes the six public universities - out of 34 total public and private institutions - "produce nearly 73 percent of the URM STEM graduates among the 13 public institutions of higher education in Missouri."
Washington University, St. Louis, is the only private school in the alliance. The Center for Plant and Life Sciences at St. Louis Community College, a two-year school, is the eighth alliance member.
"There has been a gradual increase in the number of URM students enrolled in STEM majors - from 1,966 in 2013 to 2,100 in 2015," the schools told the NSF.
"The number of degrees earned by these students increased as well by 23 percent - from 217 graduates in 2013 to 283 graduates in 2015.
Said Sewell, LU's provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, told the News Tribune last week LU's share of the $5 million grant will be used to increase the number of Lincoln students choosing to go into STEM fields "particularly by developing an annual summer STEM bridge program, STEM Living-Learning Community, funding student research opportunities, hiring student workers (as tutors and research assistants), attending STEM conferences (for) faculty support and guest lectures."
The alliance was created in the aftermath of the 2014 Ferguson demonstrations and the national spotlight focused on economic problems in minority communities.
Some of the schools already offer programs - such as LU's sponsoring a series of workshops to expose minority students to STEM courses and degrees. Under the grant, those workshops will be expanded.
The proposal highlighted that Lincoln already provides undergraduate research opportunities "for students to work on NSF-funded research projects," under the guidance of four principal investigators.
LU math professor Donna Stallings is one of the project's four co-principal investigators, and LU's Sivanandan Balakumar, department head for Computer Science, Technology and Mathematics, will be a site coordinator.