Preparing Critical Faculty for the Future² (PCFF²)

Overview

Information on how to apply to the PCFF² project can be found here.

Funded by the National Science Foundation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), the goals of the PCFF² project are:

• to advance the PCFF women of color faculty as academic leaders and broaden their chances for putting their new teaching and leadership skills into practice at their home campus; and
• to advance the development of models of STEM educational and systemic institutional innovation that will better ensure increases in the number of STEM graduates from historically underrepresented populations.

PCFF² seeks to achieve its goals by advancing some of the most viable Action Plans developed by teams that attended the summer 2012 AAC&U Institute on Integrative Learning and the Departments. By uncovering useful strategies for preparing women faculty of color for academic leadership in STEM fields, both PCFF projects intend to improve STEM education broadly as well as at HBCUs.

The implicit strategy for the program expansion is that these aims will be achieved best by respecting each HBCU’s deep cultural traditions, focusing on its mission of service to underrepresented communities and building on its recognized strengths. This means collaboratively planning with campus leaders the actions needed to achieve these aims. The intent is to make certain that the program’s work—STEM teaching and learning innovations—will meet the specific needs of each campus. We will work with each campus to strengthen its vitality by creating more inclusive environments for women of color in STEM disciplines; by expanding support for STEM educational transformation within and beyond the STEM disciplines; and over time, to evolve and sustain these efforts. We will also work collectively with the selected campuses to share lessons that will assist other HBCUs, other minority serving institutions, and the broader higher education community in increasing the number of people from historically underrepresented communities who pursue STEM careers.

Four institutions from PCFF Cohort II will be selected to participate in PCFF² for two years—from September 2013 until August 2015. Campus leaders must identify a five-person team of individuals (including the two original PCFF women of color STEM faculty) who will attend the project's launch. Each campus must identify an administrator who will serve as the institutional liaison to the program. Ideally this person would be one member of the five-person team attending the launch. The team’s attendance will be funded through the institutions’ PCFF² funding allocation.

The teams selected will be chosen to participate in PCFF² based upon the viability of the action plans developed from each institution. A grant-supported project consultant will be assigned to serve as the PCFF² liaison to each selected campus. Campus leaders and their PCFF² liaison will co-construct and configure the specific activities and expertise the campus needs to build effective support mechanisms that will increase the number of their students who pursue and complete STEM majors. The grant will support four categories of professional and organizational development activities including:

• professional development for the original PCFF faculty;
• individual professional development for faculty in STEM disciplines, faculty from other disciplines, as well as staff and administrators who can support the campus STEM transformation effort;
• organizational development activities for a campus team; and
• on-campus consultations.

Selection for participation will be based upon the strength of the institution's proposed activities, the expressed benefits to individual participants and the institution, institutional support for the Action Plan implementation, results for improving student STEM learning, and a preliminary indication of the activities that campus leaders want the funding to support.

A list of all institutions selected for the original PCFF program can be found here. At this time only Cohort II institutions are eligible to apply to participate in the expansion program PCFF².

We encourage you to explore all the other links on these PCFF² pages to get a clear understanding of the various aspects of the project. We also encourage you to contact Kathryn Angeles at angeles@aacu.org or 202 -387-3760 ext. 413 with any questions you may have.