Alliance Graduate Program: Alliance Graduate Mentors Faculty and Program Groups

Jump to:

• Alliance Graduate Mentors
• Opportunities to learn about the Alliance
• Admissions Procedures for Becoming Alliance Faculty
• Benefits of Alliance Membership
• Alliance Departmental Graduate Program Groups
• Alliance Graduate Program Group Pages

The Alliance began its existence as a program with an emphasis on the transition from undergraduate education to graduate education. In keeping with this, the Alliance built a community of Undergraduate Mentors -- math sciences faculty at institutions serving large numbers of underrepresented undergraduate students. The number of these mentors have grown to over 180; they represent more than 80 colleges and universities nationally. These Undergraduate Mentors select Alliance Undergraduate Scholars, who are then eligible for Alliance activities. There are now more than 400 past and present Undergraduate Scholars. Building on this success and on the success of the Alliance Postdoc Program, the Alliance has now begun to build a graduate program. Experience has shown that the success of American doctoral students in STEM fields, and especially those students from underrepresented backgrounds, depends in an essential way on the climate and culture of the departments they attend. This fact has led organizations such as GEM and Sloan to design their fellowship programs around departments and individual faculty who have demonstrated that they have the knowledge and experience to build programs in which such students thrive. We have modeled our Alliance graduate program on these organizations and, in so doing, we have designated both individual and group Alliance faculty membership:

Alliance Graduate Mentors

These are math sciences graduate faculty members who are interested in mentoring underrepresented doctoral students. They have made a commitment to mentor doctoral students from underrepresented backgrounds and, beyond that, to work with other faculty in their department as well as with other Alliance Graduate Faculty nationally to increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds who will receive a doctoral degree in the math sciences. Such faculty will be expected to participate in Alliance programs such as mentoring, developing collaborations with REU programs and attending the annual Field of Dreams Conference. They also work within their department to build or maintain an Alliance Departmental Graduate Program Group. Browse a list of all graduate mentors here.

Opportunities to learn about the Alliance

To maximize the impact of the Alliance we will have multiple opportunities for individuals and departments to learn about our mission and programs. These opportunities will be widely publicized via the Alliance website, the Math Sciences Institutes and through regular mailings to math sciences departments.

The Alliance has partnered with the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) to offer a series of biannual, weeklong workshops: Finding and Keeping Graduate Students in the Mathematical Sciences. The Alliance encourages faculty who are interested in becoming Alliance Graduate Mentors to attend the annual Field of Dreams conference. Departments may invite someone from the Alliance leadership to make presentations on the Alliance and its activities. Please contact the Alliance office at mathalliance@uiowa.edu if you are interested in such a visit.

Admissions Procedures for Becoming Alliance Faculty

Becoming an Alliance Graduate Mentor: There are multiple ways that a faculty member can qualify to become an Alliance Mentor. Examples include mentoring at least one graduate student from an underrepresented background or participating in one or more of the Alliance events described above.

Becoming an Alliance Departmental Graduate Program Group: Faculty members who have become familiar with the Alliance via the activities above will be encouraged to form a GPG and to apply to the Alliance for membership. Such an application will include information about the department as well as a statement from the perspective GPG, outlining its goals and objectives as well as its strategy for obtaining these goals and objectives. The application also needs a commitment from department leadership to support Alliance activities and programs. Applications may be submitted at any time.

To apply to become an Alliance Graduate Mentor, an Alliance GPG or for further information, please contact the Alliance Director, Phil Kutzko (philip-kutzko@uiowa.edu).

The success of these applications will be determined by a committee consisting of Alliance faculty at all levels as well as Alliance graduate students.

The success of Alliance programs depends in an essential way on the continuing commitment of its faculty. For this reason, GPGs and Faculty Mentors will be given appointments of three years, after which their status will be reviewed.

Benefits of Alliance Membership

A listing, including biographical information and research interests, will be provided for each Alliance Graduate Faculty Mentor on the Alliance website. Click here to see example profiles. Each departmental GPG will be provided a webpage on the Alliance website. This webpage contains information about the department's graduate programs, and includes links to the departmental website as well as to the GPG's Alliance Graduate Faculty listings. Undergraduate Alliance Scholars will be encouraged to consider departments with GPGs as well as Alliance Faculty Mentors for their graduate studies. Alliance Faculty Mentors may nominate Alliance Graduate Scholars.

Departments with GPGs will be eligible to host students with Alliance Graduate Fellowships.

Our hope is to encourage many programs and departments to join the Alliance; indeed we hope all universities adopt practices to increase the success of underrepresented students.

Alliance Departmental Graduate Program Groups

An Alliance Departmental Graduate Program Group (GPG) is a group of Alliance Graduate Faculty Mentors in a math sciences department of sufficient size and seniority that they may successfully mentor a significant number of graduate students from underrepresented groups. These GPGs share the goal of ensuring that underrepresented students who wish to pursue an advanced degree in these departments will thrive, and they have committed themselves to a set of best practices. An Alliance Departmental Graduate Program Group will typically include at least 10% of the tenured faculty in its department and should have the support of departmental leadership. One of the primary benefits of being an Alliance Graduate Program Group is the eligibility to host students who hold Alliance Graduate Fellowships. The Alliance maintains a webpage for each Alliance GPG. See below for information about the GPG's graduate programs and opportunities.

The Alliance is eager to increase the number of its Graduate Faculty Mentors and works to provide opportunities for math sciences graduate faculty nationally to become familiar with Alliance goals and practices. For further information, see the admissions section above for Admissions Procedures for Becoming Alliance Faculty.