Charles Craik, PhD, director of the CCB Graduate Program in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, talks with a student at UCSF Mission Bay.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is recognizing UCSF’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB) Graduate Program in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry for its notable record of recruitment and retention of underrepresented students.
CCB is listed among top programs, including programs at UCLA and Johns Hopkins University, highlighted for diversity on the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) website. NIGMS is part of the National Institutes of Health and supports research that provides the foundation for disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
“Great science needs diversity among scientists,” said Charles Craik, PhD, director of the CCB Graduate Program in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. “Diversity allows scientists to think of the implications of their work in different ways and allows communication of that work to a broader sector of society.”
This year, CCB increased its enrollment of underrepresented students to 22 percent. This is an increase from 12 percent in 2004 and 18 percent in 2007.
“Congratulations to CCB,” said Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy. “This is an exceptional recognition of efforts to promote and achieve diversity in our graduate programs.”
As stated on the NIGMS website, it is important that all institutional training programs continue to increase the number of underrepresented students they serve.
The idea of highlighting best practices on a website came out of a 2001 meeting that NIGMS held in an effort to address how to achieve excellence through diversity. The effort is rooted in a federal mandate to increase diversity in university training programs.
“One of the outcomes of the meeting was that we established a website that would let training programs know what is working well,” said Marion Zatz, PhD, chief of the Developmental and Cellular Processes Branch at NGMS. “There are close to 300 programs supported by NIGMS, and we wanted to try and identify those that are doing a particularly good job – not only with their numbers, but to list their best strategies in an effort to give those programs that are struggling some new ideas.”
Chemistry and Chemistry Biology (CCB) Graduate Program students network with one another.
The NIGMS website does point out that the successful strategies noted by many of the recognized universities are offered as an “example of a larger group of programs that are striving to meet a [diversity] goal.”
“There needs to be institutional support, which includes financial support, for diversity because this allows for a climate that says, ‘This is important to us and we think part of our educational responsibility is to increase excellence through diversity.’ Just like teaching is important or research is important – diversity is important,” said Zatz.
UCSF’s vision of building on its commitment to diversity is one of seven key initiatives in the UCSF Strategic Plan. The plan serves to guide UCSF’s direction as it carries out its mission of
advancing health worldwide™.
"In evaluating minority applicants in our interview/admissions process,
we look at all factors of the application with a lesser emphasis on GPA
and GRE scores," Craik explains.
Other factors include type and amount of research experience.
Another successful strategy CCB noted is the direct solicitation of prospective students by faculty through the UC LEADS training programs. Among many areas of support, UC LEADS scholars are matched with UCSF faculty members, who serve as advisers and mentors. NIH officials believe that, in conjunction with institutional support, it is important for faculty working in research to directly reach out to underrepresented students. UC LEADS also proactively addresses challenges faced by many underrepresented students, such as test preparation and career planning, which often serve as barriers to their recruitment and retention.
In addition to strategies, several universities pointed out how to tackle challenges. CCB notes that it is important to recognize and address the issue of stigma that might be felt by underrepresented students. It points out that it is necessary to look for ways to provide tutoring and mentoring without having students feel stigmatized.
