Collaborative Research: SBE Alliance: GLASS (Great Lakes Alliance for the Social and Behavioral Sciences)

SES-0750621<br/>Lawrence Henschen<br/>Northwestern University<br/><br/>SES-0750599<br/>John Hansen<br/>University of Chicago<br/><br/>SES-0750656<br/>Charles Halaby<br/>Judy Roller<br/>University of Wisconsin-Madison<br/><br/>SES-0750630<br/>Robert Kaufman<br/>Ohio State University<br/><br/>SES-0750618<br/>Evelynn Ellis<br/>Chalandra Bryant<br/>Eva Pell<br/>Pennsylvania State University<br/><br/>SES-0750612<br/>Aquiles Iglesias<br/>Zebulon Kendrick<br/>Temple University<br/><br/>SES-0750612<br/>Deborah Richie<br/>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<br/><br/>The grant provides continued (three-years) support for the Great Lakes Alliance for Social and Behavioral Sciences (GLASS) Alliance. GLASS is comprised of seven universities--Northwestern University (Alliance lead institution), University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign, University of Chicago, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Wisconsin, and Temple University. The Alliance seeks to broaden the participation of PhD students in the social and behavioral sciences by: (1) engaging in coordinated activities across the seven universities, (2) increasing coordination of activities on each campus, (3) and studying the impact of various techniques on promoting diversity in graduate education. GLASS will focus on increasing the number of minority students enrolled in alliance institutions' graduate programs in the social, behavioral and economic sciences, the establishment of permanent infrastructure on each campus and across alliances to support diversity and a diverse population of graduate students, and the development of a publishable set of techniques and guidelines that can be used by any university and creates a national forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices for promoting diversity in the academy.<br/><br/>The value added of the alliance structure includes: 1) alliance-level activities (e.g., an annual student research conference and the creation of common recruiting materials and coordinated recruiting efforts; 2) recruitment through the implementation of an Alliance Visiting Scholars Program and coordination of recruiting efforts at major conferences, fairs and university visits; 3) increased retention of students due to a cadre of social and behavioral professors and scholars who provide an instant, multi-level mentoring network and enable transition programs; and 4) increased activities and programs targeted at undergraduates in a wider range of universities and colleges to increase the pool of potential graduate students. The number of universities in the alliance also allows the PIs to analyze the effectiveness of new strategies for broadening participation and the transference of existing techniques to new settings. <br/><br/>Broader Impact: The alliance model contribute to creating a diverse graduate education student body and faculty at US colleges and universities. Further the Alliance will develop written materials that can be distributed to all universities in the US could form the basis for a national exchange of ideas about alliances as a strategy to broaden participation in US institutions of higher learning.