MIT
Reports to the President 1994-95
While this year for the Office of Minority Education (OME) can be described as
a transitional year, it also has been a year of accomplishments and new
directions. In August, Ms. Judy Jackson resigned as Associate Dean and
Director of OME in order to pursue doctoral studies at Harvard University.
Professor David Gordon Wilson was appointed as Interim Director and served
until February 1, 1995.
A search committee, chaired by Professor Rafael L. Bras, reviewed 140 resumes,
and received input from the entire community. As a result of this national
search, Leo Osgood was appointed as the new Director of OME.
For over a quarter of a century, OME has provided academic and support for
underrepresented minority students (African Americans, Mexican Americans,
Native Americans, and Puerto Ricans) through an array of programs designed to
promote excellence. OME operated and supported the following programs during
the 1994-95 academic year.
Project Interphase continues to be one of the OME's major efforts in providing
academic enhancement to minority students who have decided to attend MIT. The
program was reduced to seven weeks from its original eight weeks, concluding
immediately before Residence Orientation Week and thereby eliminating the cost
of a second trip from home to MIT.
XL continues to be a strong academic enrichment program for first-year minority
and non-minority students. Participants meet twice a week for one and a half
hours in small groups that focus on math and physics. An XL Facilitator
(usually a graduate student) oversees the interactive discussion of materials
covered in the subjects. The following are the XL Statistics for 1994-95:
Enrolled Completed Ethnicity Totals
Fall 1994 64 52 (81%) African American 26
Hispanic 18
Other 4
Native American 3
Asian 1
Spring 1995 47 43 (91%) African American 18
Hispanic 12
Asian 6
Other 7
The OME Tutorial Services experienced significant growth in tutoring hours over
the last six semesters (see chart). In order to address the high number of
requests for tutorial services, the OME hired approximately 121 graduate and
undergraduate tutors from an array of ethnic backgrounds and disciplines.
Fall '92 Spring Fall '93 Spring Fall '94 Spring
'93 '94 '95
Users: 296 375 398 385 427 326
Tutoring Hours 904 1293 1654 2361 2109 1963
Independent Study 269 371 226 566 228 277
Hours
Athena Use Hours 162 133 102 281 256 223
During IAP, 52 students enrolled in the engineering design workshop for the
Second Summer Program (17 African Americans, 4 Native Americans, 30 Hispanics,
and 1 Costa Rican; 32 men and 20 women). After completing the engineering
design workshop and interviews with the IACME companies participating in the
program, 23 of the 52 students were placed with 18 companies. Faculty will
visit 13 of these companies during the summer.
Over the spring term, the OME Student Advisory Council was revitalized to
create a mechanism for minority students to bring their concerns and issues to
the attention of the Director of OME. The OMESAC consists of a cross-section
of underrepresented minority student professional and social organizations who
meet with the Director of the OME monthly.
The OME continues to be the repository for information regarding minority
scholarships. This year the OME facilitated full and partial scholarship
support for over thirty-five minority students, with amounts ranging from
$1,000 to $26,000.
The Nineteenth Annual Minority Awards Banquet received support from the
Counseling and Support Services, Office of Career Services and Preprofessional
Advising, Office of the Dean for the Graduate School, Office of the President,
and Residence and Campus Activities. Over three hundred faculty,
administrators, staff, and students attended the event at which students
received academic and community service awards for their contributions to
improving the quality of minority student life at MIT.
The Spirit newsletter maintained its circulation of 2,000 readers, consisting
of faculty, staff, students, members of the IACME, and parents.
Leo Osgood, Jr.
Ruben Morfin-Ramirez
Gail-Lenora Staton
MIT
Reports to the President 1994-95