Greetings from the lovely United States Virgin Islands!

We are excited to have you join us in conversation on the strategies taken by our HBCU to build a supportive community and resources for faculty and student research development. These measures navigated the new virtual structures instituted because of the pandemic and addressed by skills acquisition and social support.

Some questions to think about:

1) What are your thoughts about the process for many teaching colleges to transition to a research focus?

2) What efforts did your institution or program take to retain a sense of community? and what technological interfaces helped or hurt people's sense of connection?

2) What psychosocial factors would you assume are critical to focus on for faculty and student support during times of disaster? and especially to promote research productivity.

Can't wait to chat! 

Collaboration and partnerships with nearby universities and research institutes, with the partners coming on our campus to work with both faculty and students was key in fostering research at Harris-Stowe State University - an HBCU in St. Louis.  Having many of the activities related to research development visible and accessible helped foster the sense of community.  I do think the "virtual learning" years have made it challenging to engagement, but has also opened up opportunities to engage that otherwise wouldn't have been possible. 

I loved the ideas in your project and can relate to the analogy of "going to the gym by yourself vs with a group" and I thinking of ways to incorporate that strategy in some of my classes - especially those that include projects.

The creation of networks is crucial especially for early career people. This is impressive! I voted!!

Dr. Cummings, 

   This video presents a model that I hope can be adopted widely.  It makes so much sense!  But it clearly takes a lot of organization to build the right structures and processes to support this kind of mentorship and peer-to-peer support, while not being intrusive or bureaucratic. 

     Partnerships seem to be really important in helping teaching colleges support their faculty to engage in more research.  I had a colleague at a state college (now university) that was undergoing just this transition, and it was hard on her (and her faculty) because the administration did not understand some of the systemic challenges facing faculty — too large a teaching load, few lab resources, accounting practices that did not accommodate idifferent kinds of partnerships -- and also unclarity about how new research work "counted" as compared with faculty service (e.g. committees) and teaching, still the primariy priority.  A partnership with an outside NGO was exciting enough to the college that it gave my colleague some leverage to talk aboutwhat it would take to deliver on the research proposal.  They made ad hoc adjustments, respondiing to this one case, but have been slow to make systemic adjustments for the faculty as a whole. Some of the problem is competing priorities, some of it is lack of imagination (if I can put it that way), and of course some of it is a matter of funding or lack of it... 

   Looking forward to hearing more!

Thank you for submitting this video. Your approaches to addressing the issues that you’ve raised in your video and introductory remarks are holistic and focus on a number of issues that are both simultaneous and overlapping.

The first question that you ask is also very pertinent to my experience even though I was on the faculty many years ago of a small liberal arts college. But the issues were the same. In our case, we applied for and eventually received a very large grant (for the College) to improve science programs. Part of that improvement (and perhaps a somewhat unintended consequence) is that the sciences began to move from a culture that was primarily focused on excellence in teaching to one that began to emphasize research productivity to a much greater extent. However, expectations for teaching and service did not become reduced, at least initially, and the facilities and equipment available was still inadequate to foster levels of research productivity that could be sustained and supported by major funding agencies. But there was increased expectation for faculty to receive grants (in a highly competitive grant environment) and to publish in major international journals.

I moved from that faculty position to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine while this transition was in full swing. What I learned from my work to improve STEM education while working at the National Academies is that primarily teaching institutions are at their best when they find ways to integrate research activities with their education missions. This means emphasizing student research through undergraduate research experiences (both apprentice- and course-based), research that benefits the campus and surrounding communities, and research that is educationally, culturally, and environmentally relevant to the faculty and students who are engaged in it. Of course, there could be a potential mismatch if the faculty view the role of research differently than academic administrators, who may be looking to increase the institution’s reputation or external funding stream through greater expectations for research. But, with a student- and community-focused plan for research, funding may be more obtainable from local sources such as local governments, business and industry, and local or regional foundations.

If you’re not familiar with it, the National Academies published a report in 2019 titled “Minority Serving Institutions: America’s Underutilized Resource for Strengthening the STEM Workforce.” More recent reports from the National Academies, e.g., “Imagining the Future of Undergraduate STEM Education: Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium” (2022) might also be helpful.

Might you also be able to provide some additional details about the first two components of VI-SERP (1) STEM teacher professional development, 2) student mentoring/training)? Does STEM teacher professional development refer to your own faculty, to preparing future K-12 and undergraduate faculty, or both?

Thank you again for this important contribution!

This is great support for faculty.  Thank you for sharing!

This looks like a wonderful program VOWS—which seems (from the illustrative case in your video) to have a significant impact on student scholarship. 

I noticed in your description that you reference "psychological and professional skill development factors" and so my question comes from a learning design perspective.  I wondered if you could share a bit more about these specific perspectives and how that translated into the VOWS intervention design?

In response to one of your questions—I think having colleges shift toward research emphasis is a fantastic prospect; however, I also recognize that occupational attainment in research is only one endeavor for science education and experiences.  I would ask, in response to your point, how we might create learning experience that emphasize both great instruction (for a teaching institution) along with research training AND (I would add) opportunities to innovate.  I've seen some really interesting entrepreneurial initiatives that leverage foundational research to innovate.  Here is a great example of what I mean at Synthetic Biology. In any event, I hope that engages with your question.  

Thanks for sharing what seems to be an important project—at the watershed point of transition for institutions historically focused on teaching, but looking to include research initiative in programmatic offerings. 

Loved this idea. We got a supplemental Grant to build research capacity at our institute and to get faculty and students involved in research. For us it made sense to have interdisciplinary research based on our faculty size at that time, and of course collaborate with institutes that already were very research based. Our research on interdisciplinary plant science and data analysis was a really good fit for us as we had a greenhouse and also were given a plot of land to do research. We had the advantage of a strong partnership with a neighboring institute that is well established in research and with  equipment and expertise. Our students were visible and influenced the larger college. 

Interdisciplinary research with many faculty involved also places less burden on each individual faculty when you have a full teaching load and so has a better chance of success with significant student engagement. It also allows for students to participate at varying levels based on their interest and time. 

I really like the idea of professional development for Emerging Researchers.

Excellent overview of much-needed programs that supports outcomes needed for faculty success. Besides mentoring within the “academies’” expectations for success, are there any other topics of social justice and understanding of equity and inclusion that are discussed. For example, an understanding of institutional/professional power and leadership, or understanding and highlighting one’s own cultural/community wealth to aid in promoting one’s identity and assets?

Such an interesting approach. I love the writing group as an ongoing support for early faculty. Thank you for doing such needed work! 

Developing writing skills along with research skills are very valuable to industry. What is the title of the published papaer?

I'm so glad to know about this project!  I know for me that early career support in the form of writing groups -- like your participant here describes -- were absolutely critical for me, and I appreciate that you provide additional support and professional development beyond that.  This is inspiring me to find a writing group now!

Very needed support in our HBCU community - supporting writing and scholarship. Continue the great work!