SC2OR3E
Mission Statement: The Special Committee for the Coordination of Outreach, Recruitment, Retention and Research Experiences (SC2OR3E) at UC Riverside is charged with coordinating and overseeing the various campus outreach efforts which are directed primarily at improving the successful recruitment and graduation of our economically and/or educationally disadvantaged undergraduate student population, providing these student opportunities for research experiences, and in increasing the diversity of our graduate student population. This committee is particularly focused on students in the sciences, math and engineering disciplines.
[Note: The committee does not attempt to manage any of the programs it works with, but rather helps gather and share information, coordinates activities which might benefit one or more of the programs, and serves as a collective voice in support of the efforts of the programs.]
Students study on the beautiful UCR campus.
SC2OR3E Membership: The Core Working Team (Team) meets at least monthly and holds special meetings as needed. Membership is primarily limited to staff and/or faculty who work closely with the students and are in the best position to discuss specific student issues and concerns within the Team. Current members include
Maria Franco-Aguilar (Graduate Recruitment Office; MSRIP, UC LEADS, AGEP)
Teresa Cofield (Student Affairs Officer, The Learning Center, CAMP-UCR Coordinator)
Kathryn Jones (Director, Student Affairs, Honors Program)
Emily Nudge (Honors Program, Upper Division Coordinator)
Rod Smith (Mesa Pre-College Program Director, BCOE)
Nancy Day (Marc U* Program Coordinator)
Carol Moffett (Health Professions Advising Coordinator)
Gary Scott (Associate Dean, CNAS)
Dominique Belanger (Coordinator, Undergraduate Research, CNAS)
Faye Dawson (Biomed FASTSTART program, Health Science Partnership)
Karen McComb (Career Center, Internship Coordinator)
Samantha Bartholomew (Director, P-20 Regional Alliances)
Yolanda Moses (Vice Provost for Conflict Resolution, Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Excellence and Diversity)
Irene Lozano (Coordinator, Medical Scholars Program)
Neal Schiller (Director, Medical Scholars Program)
Outreach Programs Coordinated:
The Outreach Programs that the Team coordinates are
- Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP; NSF funded program)
- California Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP; NSF funded program)
- FASTSTART (summer bridge program sponsored by Biomed and California Wellness Foundation)
- Health Sciences Partnership Program (High School Outreach program sponsored by Biomed)
- UC Leadership Excellence through Advanced DegreeS (UC LEADS; UCR and UCOP funded)
- Mentoring Summer Research Internship Program (MSRIP; funded by UCR and UCOP)
- Marc U* Program (funded by NIH)
- Medical Scholars Program (MSP, funded by Biomed, private sponsors, and soon HHMI)
Role of SC2OR3E
The major function of the SC2OR3E Team is to meet on a regular basis (at least monthly) to exchange information about the various activities included in the programs listed above. One such activity includes summer research experiences, comprising students recruited by MSRIP from colleges and universities across the country and undergraduate students from UCR involved in CAMP, UC LEADS or AGEP. Another activity is speaking by guest presenters from UCR’s faculty, leaders in the private or industrial sectors, national grant program administrators, and/or other individuals who may serve as role models for our students. A key example of a guest presenter is Dr. Roosevelt Johnson, Program Director, Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the NSF, who spoke in recent years about graduate funding opportunities for students in the science, engineering and mathematics fields. With adequate implementation and shared resources, the Team can benefit the largest number of students.
The Team seeks to forward student access to the various programs, including nominating many to apply for its programs (MSRIP, UC LEADS, Marc U*, etc.). In so doing, it markets its various programs to ensure that students learn about opportunities in a timely fashion. One way it does this is by publicizing activities through a common web site. Its offshoot is the research opportunities roadmap at http://www.graddiv.ucr.edu/Roadmap.html, linked through the Office of Research Affairs that describes undergraduate research opportunities at http://www.ora.ucr.edu/vc/UndergradResearch/Default.asp. While its quarterly newsletter (highlighting events, articles, and student profiles) is in-the-works, its program brochures are circulated department-wide and to undergraduate advisors.
The Team works as a collective voice for and with various campus offices (such as Housing, UCR Summer Sessions, The Learning Center, etc.) that support one or more of its programs. Such collective activity can lobby for better prices for housing, which actually happened one year for the summer programs. In turn, the summer programs often hire experts who conduct GRE workshops or clinics – sharing the cost of services between programs to make opportunities more affordable for each program at large.
Clearly, the goals of the Team are to share promising practices and to maximize the effectiveness of the resources available on campus for students. Secondarily, and in addition, the collaboration can aid faculty who are developing grants, particularly training grants (e.g., GAANN, IGERT, McNair, Howard Hughes), in which a required component of the grant is the recruitment of either minority or disadvantaged students. The point is the Team can provide information and document on-going and collaborative activities already in place that support related needs.
For more information contact:
Neal L. Schiller, Ph.D.
Distinguished Teaching Professor
Associate Dean, UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences
Office Tel: 951-827-4535
Res. Tel: 951-827-4569
Fax: 951-827-5504
Email: neal.schiller@ucr.edu
Address:
Stat-Comp Bldg B600
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521