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Chem, physics grad depts. lag in recruiting minorities Part 2 of 2 By Hannah McClung The Daily Cardinal
While UW-Madison science graduate programs focus on recruitment and creating a welcoming climate for minority students, diversity numbers have remained constant. Professor and former Physics Department Chair Susan Coppersmith said the difficulty with low diversity numbers is that it has gone on for decades and is a nation-wide problem in physics. The amount of minority students in the physics program at UW decreased from 4.4 percent in 2000 to 1.9 percent in 2005 and then increased to 3.1 percent in 2008, according to the documents. This means there were 6 minority graduate students out of 135 in 2000, 3 minority graduates out of 161 in 2005 and 5 minority graduate students out of 159 in 2008. “All of our students come with full support, so it’s not a question of being financially supported… or increasing access,” Coppersmith said. Coppersmith emphasized the physic department’s recruitment efforts of sending representatives to conferences that focus on minority students interested in science programs. According to Coppersmith, the physics department also offers Advanced Opportunity Fellowships that are not specifi-
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cally for minority students but the selection criteria are “such that there is a higher representation of underrepresented groups for the fellowship.” “It’s true that our records are nowhere near where we want to be or even what many people believe is a reasonable fraction of underrepresented groups, but compared to other physics departments it is terrible for everybody,” Coppersmith said. Robert Hamers, chair of the chemistry department, said low diversity numbers is widely recognized in chemistry programs as well. In 2000, 4.6 percent of chemistry graduates were minority students, which was 11 minority graduate students out of 238. In 2008, the chemistry graduate program increased their diversity to 7.3 percent, which was 19 graduates out of 259 total graduates in the program. “It’s a very complicated problem, and a large part of it is that underrepresented minorities are underrepresented in the sciences at the undergraduate level,” Hamers said. According to Hamers, UW as a whole does not have as much of a sense of community so when underrepresented groups get here they do not always feel there is a community of people, and that hurts UW’s recruitment.
In 2000 percent of minority grad students in UW Physics Dept. In 2008 percent of minority grad students in UW Physics Dept. Number of minority grad students in UW Chemistry Dept in 2008, out of 259
Hamers said the chemistry department has sent students to the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers for recruitment efforts, but added that a more cost-effective way to recruit is to build partnerships with other graduate schools focused on research. “We are trying to build a relationship that will have a pipeline of students that we can start getting here for graduate study,” Hamers said. According to him, the chemistry department participates in the National Science Foundation Partners in Research Education program, which couples a minority-serving institution with a nonminority-serving institution and facilitates exchange of students to work on collaborative research. The chemistry department also has the Research Experience for Undergraduates program that brings undergraduates to campus for a summer to work on research with a faculty member to encourage them to apply for graduate school at UW, said Hamers. “REU is open to anyone irrespective of socioeconomic background or minority status, but we do particularly try to encourage underrepresented groups to come,” Hamers said. “We don’t want to bring students here to fill a quota, we want to be sure the students will succeed.” “We’ve also seen the number of applications from schools where our REU students are from increase because of the experience we’ve given them,” said Chemistry Department Faculty Associate Andrew Greenberg. According to Greenberg, offering the summer program shows students they can be successful, which can be a factor in their decision of where to apply. diversity page 3
Dance marathon raises over $80,000 for chidren’s hospital By Anna Discher The Daily Cardinal
More than 400 participants danced Friday night at the Shell for the Wisconsin Dance Marathon, raising over $80,000 to be donated to the American Family Children’s Hospital. Adam Wallenfang, a UW-Madison student and co-director of WDM, said the event ran from
7 p.m. Friday until 9 a.m. Saturday and participants were required to be standing or dancing the entire time. According to Wallenfang, the event raised $80,433 for the children’s hospital. “The event went really, really well,” he said. “We were more successful than we were last year.” According to Wallenfang, participants were entertained through-
SPORTS
out the night by various dance performances from UW-Madison teams such as Hypnotiq, Optima Dance, Premiere Dance and Dance Elite, as well as a performance by a local band. “We tried to have as many varied activities as possible for everyone to keep everyone energized throughout dance page 3
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Monday, March 1, 2010
Poetic justice
Nelson Cho/the daily cardinal
The Wisconsin Grand Slam Poetry team’s final competition featured several guest performances at the Memorial Union Theater Friday.
UW students safe in Chile UW-Madison officials have confirmed the safety of all students studying in Chile this semester after the earthquake that occurred Saturday. “For the second time this semester, we are fortunate that our students are safe, despite being in harm’s way,” Dean of Students Lori Berquam said in a release. The 8.8-magnitude earthquake, which has killed more than 700
people in Chile so far according to The Associated Press. According to the release, UW-Madison’s study abroad program currently has 24 students studying in Chile, 12 of whom are from UW-Madison and 12 of whom are from the University of Michigan. All the students were contacted by UW-Madison’s International Academic Program and have been advised not to travel at this time.
Van Hollen: Released felons must still submit DNA By Hannah Furfaro The Daily Cardinal
Convicted offenders who are no longer in custody are still required to submit a DNA sample, according to a recent letter from the attorney general to the Department of Corrections. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen sent a letter Thursday to the DOC advising that a convicted offender’s obligation to submit a DNA specimen does not expire when the offender leaves the criminal justice system. “I have concluded that, once an offender becomes obligated to provide a biological specimen, that obligation remains until he or she discharges it through the submission of a biological specimen,” Van Hollen said in the letter. According to Bill Cosh, Van Hollen’s spokesperson, the letter was sent at the request of the DOC. “The Department of Corrections believes that the attorney general’s opinion confirms the approach the department has already been taking and will continue to take in our ongoing effort
to obtain biological specimens from individuals who are required by law to provide a sample, but have failed to do so,” the DOC said in a statement. Current law allows the DOC to criminally prosecute individuals who fail to submit DNA samples. According to a statement from Van Hollen, failure to submit a sample results in a misdemeanor. In his letter, Van Hollen recommended creating a “noncriminal mechanism” to avoid taking individuals to court in compliancefailure cases. “While I believe that a court may correct its sentencing order to require submission of a specimen, this is a potentially timeconsuming and resource-intensive process,” he said. Van Hollen’s letter comes just over five months after the Wisconsin Department of Justice found that DNA samples from nearly 4,000 convicted felons were missing from the statewide database. Last September, Gov. Jim Doyle created a DNA task force to track down the missing DNA samples.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”