Resources for Student Participation in Faculty-led Research

This proposal recommends that we strengthen support for undergraduate research at Mills. It specifically highlights one area where we currently have little institutional support: Resources for student participation in faculty-led research.

Importance of Undergraduate Research: The benefits of undergraduate research are numerous. Undergraduate research fosters an active participation in the pursuit of knowledge. It deepens students’ understanding of a discipline, allows them to develop skills central to that discipline, and promotes creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking.

It fosters close mentoring relationships between faculty and students, and allows for opportunities to build self-esteem and leadership skills, develop professionalism, work as a collaborative team with others, and clarify career goals. Studies have shown that introducing students to undergraduate research early on and for an extended period of time aids in the retention and performance of undergraduate students, increases the likelihood that students will pursue careers in these areas, and may especially benefit underrerepresented minorities in the sciences.

Today, it is increasingly common for graduate and professional programs to require incoming students to have some undergraduate research experience outside of the classroom, and many fields increasingly expect research experience with a faculty member or in an established research setting.
Involvement in faculty-led research has many special benefits. Students gain experience working in real laboratories and professional settings, and thus they have an opportunity to develop more advanced skills in their discipline. A faculty member may spend many weeks and even many months training and supervising a student, and because most of our programs are strictly undergraduate, our students are in a unique opportunity to play a central role in faculty-led research compared to those at large research institutions (where graduate students take on these roles). With advanced training and supervision, undergraduate students at Mills often gain experience and accomplish skills that are at the graduate level, and such projects are more likely to yield opportunities for publishing and presenting research at professional conferences. This is a definite advantage for undergraduate students at Mills and is one of the qualities that makes us unique.
Faculty-led projects are often larger and students may come together across disciplines and majors to work collaboratively and gain perspectives from these other disciplines. Students are likely to be at different academic levels, and, thus serve as role models with each other. This is not only educational, but can build a sense of community for students. Because faculty-led projects are extensive and usually have a longer duration than student projects, they allow for a longer protracted research experience for students. Work on faculty-led projects fosters independent work as well as teamwork, and can still provide opportunities for students to develop smaller independent projects. For example, in some cases, students may have opportunities to attach independent projects to the larger project. In other instances, students may be able to take on a portion of the faculty-led project and develop this as an independent project.

Faculty also benefit from undergraduate involvement in their research and in some disciplines, student involvement may even be essential, as in the sciences, where a research team is necessary to complete a research project. Faculty also benefit from student ideas, creativity, and energy in their research. Thus, providing resources for student participation in faculty-led research not only benefits students, but also benefits faculty. It is a win-win situation.

Current Status: Currently, we have inadequate support for faculty-led research at Mills. The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) helps support small undergraduate research projects (and even these funds are limited). The Faculty Development fund is terribly insufficient and in many instances, award amounts are too little to support student participation, especially when the cost of the research project itself takes up (or exceeds) the funds awarded. Much faculty research takes place in the summer when faculty have more time to devote to research and projects and labs can operate on a regular or full-time basis. Many students must financially support themselves in the summer or need to move home to locations outside the Bay Area for living support. We have very limited summer research support at Mills, and a summer research program that would involve student stipends and summer housing would allow more students to be able to take advantage of research opportunities and ensure continuity (i.e., less disruptive turnover) of student involvement in faculty-led research. Such a program would also be more equitable for students, since it is often the more financially disadvantaged students who must to choose a paid job over a research experience in order to support themselves.

To support faculty-led research, we also need more support for the infrastructure of existing labs and equipment, computers, and research supplies, and physical space dedicated that is dedicated to this. Mentoring students in faculty-led research requires a very large time commitment and is often the equivalent of teaching an additional course, so support for faculty is important and essential. I believe that much of this mentoring takes place on Fridays and may reflect a greater amount of curricular activity on Fridays at Mills than is actually apparent on the books.

Strengthening the Undergraduate Curriculum and Infrastructure in Biopsychology

Background: Biopsychology is an interdisciplinary major (traditionally a subfield of Psychology) that examines interactions between biology, behavior, mental processes, environment, and health. It reflects the ever-increasing interdisciplinary nature of science and incorporates rapid developments in areas such as behavioral genetics, psychoneuroimmunology, neuroendocrinology, and neuroscience. To date, about 60 colleges and universities in the U.S. offer undergraduate programs in biopsychology and the number of programs is expected to grow.

At Mills, Biopsychology was formally approved as an undergraduate major in 2003 (prior to this, it served as a college major). There has been a steady increase in the number of majors in Biopsychology, and a doubling in the last two years, from 8 to 16 majors. We expect this major to continue to attract more students in the future, not only because of rapid advances in the neurosciences, but also because of upcoming changes in medical school curriculums, which will place more emphasis on understanding behavioral and sociocultural determinants of health and health outcomes. These changes are designed to prepare physicians to serve a more diverse population and develop a clear understanding of the impact of behavior on health. Medical school entrance requirements will change to include coursework in psychology and statistics, and starting in 2015, the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will include a new social and behavioral sciences section, Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior. We predict that the new emphasis on psychosocial factors and health is likely to make Biopsychology an increasingly attractive undergraduate major for many students interested in a career in medicine.

The Biopsychology major at Mills offers several courses that are relevant to this curricular and paradigmatic shift, including Fundamentals of Psychology, Physiological Psychology, Neurobiology, Health Psychology, Stress and Disease, Psychopathology, Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, and Research Methods. Additionally, the BS degree in Biopsychology fulfills pre-med requirements. Faculty research on psychobiologic mechanisms of disease activity and mental disorders in autoimmune disease, hormone and immune alterations associated with anxiety disorders, and molecular mechanisms of learning in the model organism C. elegans are also relevant to the future emphasis of psychosocial factors in medicine and participation in this research attracts many students who wish to enter medical school.

Concerns: At Mills, the Biopsychology major is run jointly by the Psychology and Biology Departments. As such, it truly reflects the interdisciplinary nature of this major and is a unique feature of our program. However, this structure also poses significant difficulties for the major, which does not have its own budget. Budgets in the ‘parent’ departments, which have diminished in recent years, are struggling to cover the expenses of their primary programs, and are thus, unable to support the financial needs of Biopsychology. As one example, the Psychology Department is unable to support the equipment maintenance of it’s psychophysiolgocial laboratory, the Laboratory of Psychology and Health, which serves students in Biopsychology as well as Psychology. This is a precarious situation: A single repair for the – 80 degree C freezer (which stores hormone and immune samples that can be lost if thawed) can cost an average of $1,500. Annual maintenance and repair policies are similarly too expensive for the Psychology Department to absorb. Additional support would also provide balance in the major so that summer support would be available for majors working in labs from both departments.

With the increased number of Biopsychology majors, now is also an ideal time to build momentum for activities that would strengthen student cohesion in the major. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, our majors do not have courses that are designed solely for them, or are even populated mostly by them. Social activities, lecture series, and journal clubs are activities that students in the major have expressed interest in and we believe would develop greater cohesion and learning opportunities among the majors. Support for the Biopsychology major would also allow us to expand existing courses to include a laboratory component, e.g., in the course Stress and Disease.

Strategic Planning Suggestion: With an increased emphasis on psychosocial influences in health and medicine in medical school curriculums and new MCAT section to reflect this, Biopsychology may become recognized as one of the ideal undergraduate majors for students planning careers in medicine, along with other majors in the natural sciences. Mills already has an excellent reputation and track record for preparing students to enter the health fields. We offer one of the most long-standing and nationally acclaimed post-bac pre-med training programs in Northern California and an excellent nursing program in partnership with Samuel Merritt University.

We could market Mills as a premier institution for preparing students to enter medicine and other health fields at both the undergraduate and post-bac levels.

Strategic planning may be used to help to build support for Biopsychology as well as other programs and majors in the natural sciences. The timing of this strategy may never be better, as a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has predicted a major shortage of primary care doctors in the U.S. Mills is geographically located in a hotbed of world-class medical centers and training programs, and faculty in Biopsychology and other majors in the Natural Sciences have collaborations with programs at UCSF (Psychology and Medicine, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine), Children’s Hospital of Oakland, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis, to name a few). We are also surrounded by clinics and other health settings providing care for underserved populations and thus are in a good position align our programs with opportunities to learn about the relationships between social stratification and access to resources and health, and effect positive change.

Four Year Nursing Program

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Forbes.com and Princeton Review some of the most popular and fastest growing majors in the U.S. over the past six years are those in the health related fields.  Health related majors are also the second most popular majors for women.

In November 2011 the California Board of Registered Nurses completed a forecast of the RN workforce in California and concluded that while the nursing shortage the state of California experienced in the early 2000’s has subsided, an examination of workforce factors indicated a likely continued demand for registered nurses in California for the foreseeable future.

The current Mills College undergraduate Nursing program is a 2+2 partnership with Samuel Merritt University in Oakland whereby those entering as first year college students complete the general education curriculum as well as the pre-nursing or nursing foundation courses at Mills College before transferring to SMU for completion of the BSN coursework.  Transfer students to Mills College are required to complete the remainder of their general education and pre-nursing courses before transferring to SMU.  Over the past five years our new pre-nursing students have on average comprised 7% of our total new students.

Concerns with the current program:

·       We experience the same cost per new student enrolled to recruit pre-nursing students as we do all other new students and discount these students at the same rate, however these students generate less tuition revenue as they transfer after 1-2 years.

·       Samuel Merritt University limits the number of students we may send to their program each semester and we are therefore limited in the number of new students we may enroll.  For example in Fall 2013 it is unlikely we are able to admit any new transfer students to our program.

·       Because transfer students are required to complete a minimum of one full year of coursework at Mills we are occasionally forced to deny admission to students with considerable general education and pre-nursing coursework completed despite their eligibility for admission to Mills otherwise.

·       We are one of four colleges in the Bay Area with the SMU partnership which prevents us from establishing a unique position in the marketplace.

·       SMU has indicated a preference for students they enroll directly from community colleges rather than from the four year partner schools and is considering reducing the number of students Mills may send to their program thus reducing the number of new pre-nursing students we may enroll.

·       Ultimately the degree earned but the student is a BSN from Samuel Merritt University thus reducing their likelihood of attachment to Mills as alumnae.

·       Pre-nursing students, prior to their transfer to SMU, demonstrate stronger year one to year two persistence than the overall first year students and are more likely to live on campus as second year students.

Challenges to creating an undergraduate nursing degree:

·       There is a high cost associated with the final two years of BSN program coursework, specifically the need for unique lab facilities and simulation robots.

·       Creation of a four year BSN program and certification by the CA Board of Registered Nurses may be a timely process.

·       We do not currently have a reputation in this market and some local competitors have well established programs including: University of San Francisco, Dominican University, CSUEB, San Jose St. and UC-Berkeley.

Opportunities:

·       As the pre-nursing courses are part of the current curriculum we have the ability to enroll students while developing the facilities.

·       There may be possibilities for collaboration with other local schools.  For profit LVN schools in the area, for example, have the current lab facilities and may be willing to rent space to Mills while our facilities are in development.

·       Holy Names University in Oakland is in the process of exploring similar facility needs for their adult learner LVN to BSN program and should be approached about creating temporary shared facility space. 

Science Courses for Non-Science Students

While there are many explanations for why we do not have more science courses for non-majors, there are even more reasons why we should.

Situated as we are in a region that is a worldwide center for information technology and biotechnology, famous for its viticulture and world class eateries, and with a science center and observatory just a few miles up the hill, we should be able to field an enticing array of "the science of X" courses and develop a campus culture that would ensure high enrollments in same.  Existing courses in ornithology and botany are a great start, but we could branch out and ensure that the humanists, artists, and social scientists that we graduate have the multiple exposures to science necessary to be a responsible citizen in the 21st century.

We can imagine a line up that might include courses like:

• Astronomy for Everyone (in conjunction with Chabot)
• The Biology and Chemistry of Wine (with trips to Napa & Sonoma)
• Modern Physics for Poets
• The Science of Cooking (Harold McGee as one of the textbooks, a cooking class in the bargain, maybe trip to a fine eatery)
• Biotechnology for Beginners
• Climate Change for 21st Century Citizens
• Computers and Society
• Mathematical Excursions : From Pythagoras to Fermat's Last Theorem
• The Mathematics of Society : Introduction Game Theory 
• The Mathematics of Society : Voting, Choice, and Probability
• Urban Forestry
• The Bridges, Boats, and Tunnels of the Bay Area (math, engineering, and the built environment)

Taught by engaging faculty who can have fun at the same time as they convey information and skills to students not otherwise engaged in the study of science.

Community Outreach for Math and Science

What

Many high school students in Oakland and in the neighboring communities are ready to take college level courses. Some do not have this possibility because of the dearth of AP courses at their school. Others have AP courses available to them, but these courses are often taught by people who are not well-trained in the subject matter and are not very adept at teaching it. This is particularly true in mathematics and computer science---in the AP Calculus and Java or C+ courses.

Proposal

We could start a program that enabled high school women to take courses at Mills for college credit. In the past we have such high school students taking, say, calculus courses, and they did exceptionally well.

Benefits

It might be that some of the students who participated in the proposed outreach program would eventually apply for admission to Mills, but even if few of them did apply to Mills, such a program would provide a tremendous benefit to the community. And the program would cost no additional FTE, at least in mathematics and computer science---and perhaps also in the other sciences. One stumbling block to a program like this is an organized system of transportation from the high school to Mills, but perhaps this could be worked out in conjunction with the School Districts involved.

New Interdisciplinary Science Majors

Proposal 

Think about combo science majors that build on existing resources but which, potentially, attract wider array of students (that is, that go beyond just grabbing existing students from existing majors). What we really need is leverage, changes that have non-linear effects. What's going on in science at the best small schools? The story is not always just more variety of majors, but perhaps an exciting portfolio?

Examples 

• Biophysics. One might pretty cheaply develop a new major in Biophysics: because it draws on bio, chem, and physics, would just be one or two new courses. But if we add it, it is not to attract a bunch of new students who are not looking at Mills now. It might, though, make us look stronger in general (since a school with no physics program is a red flag to some students, legitimately). One might worry, though, about trying to do biophysics when we do not really do physics. 
• X/Engineering. We do get quite a few students interested in engineering, but even a degree in engineering science (like Smith, which as you know is not totally successful) would be really expensive and possibly not worth the investment. See also:Make the 2+3 Engineering Program Really Work.  
• Another option that has come up is a strand of Environmental Chemistry.

Another innovative approach in the sciences is the 5 year degree.  Rutgers, for example, has a Professional Science Masters (4+1) Program where you can earn a BS/MBS.  We would need to ascertain how are 4+1 programs viewed by employers and graduate programs, of course.  A variation on this might be to offer a five year BA/BS that expands options using current offerings but with, perhaps, an attractive discount for staying the extra year.