The University of California is an equal opportunity university. The value of diversity in all aspects of the University's educational programs is fundamental to its mission as a land grant institution. From the Chancellor on down, the UCSD administration is committed to the importance of diversity. Among the tenured mathematics faculty, we have one of who is African American, one of Hispanic origin, 11 of Asian origin and 6 women. While these numbers are small, they compare very favorably with other top ranked mathematics departments around the country.
UCSD has played a leading role nationally in the recruitment, admission and retention of graduate students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Among our 96 Ph.D. students, 14 are Asian, 3 Hispanic, 3 are African American and 16 are women. Compared with other Group I public universities (see Notices of the American Mathematical Society ) we are one of the primary producers of Hispanic mathematics Ph.D.s in the country.
Washington Monthly (washingtonmonthly.com) recently ranked universities using a different ranking criteria. They gathered reams of publicly available data and settled on three criteria: social mobility, research, and service. In terms of their ranking, America's best colleges are those that work hardest to help economically disadvantaged students earn the credentials that the job market demands. They're the institutions that contribute new scientific discoveries and highly trained PhDs. They're the colleges that emphasize the obligations students have to serve their communities and the nation at large. In this ranking among public universities, UCSD ranked 2nd in the US.
We currently have 7 women faculty. Professor Fan Chung Graham holds an Endowed Chair and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Graham is extremely prolific in producing new Ph.D.s in combinatorics. Professor Linda Rothschild is a past President of the American Association of Women Mathematicians, a Bergman Prize winner and also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Ruth Williams received a Presidential Young Investigator Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Audrey Terras is one of the largest producers of Ph.D.s in our department and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Lily Xu is a junior statistician and a recipient of the David P. Byar Young Investigator Award of the American Statistical Association. Lecturer Laura Stevens is a combinatorist who is active in math education. Professor Kate Okikiolu is a professor of African descent who received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Professors Terras and Okikiolu have been active in several summer workshops at the Institute for Advanced Study for young women graduate students. While this is a small number, it is to our knowledge, more than the number of women faculty in any of the top 20 Group I public university mathematics departments.
In 2006, Grad Vice Chair Jim Lin attended an American Institute of Mathematics conference on Finding and Keeping Graduate Students in Mathematics. He interacted with several other professors from universities that were successful at recruiting and retaining women and underrepresented students in mathematics. He learned about the successful Encouraging Diversity Growth and Education (EDGE) program for women and also several other ideas about how to enhance the sense of community for graduate students. He has since given talks on Diversifying a Large Public University at the Winter Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and also at the Math Sciences Research Institute meeting Promoting Diversity at the Graduate Level in Mathematics: A National Forum in October, 2008.
As part of the research done on recruitment and retention of underrepresented students, the original organizers of the American Institute of Mathematics conference cited UCSD as an exemplary program and came to UCSD for a site visit in February, 2009.
We recognize that campus climate can also play a large role in the success of our recruitment and retention program. Underrepresented students and women who perceive a hostile climate tend to have a lower sense of belonging and this affects their ability to persist in the graduate program. Grad Vice Chair Jim Lin, is a Founder of the UCSD Cross Cultural Center. The Center is now over 13 years old and hosts over 300 cultural events per quarter including get togethers for graduate students. Our underrepresented students find the Center to be a welcoming place where they can find other students will similar backgrounds. This makes the Cross Cultural Center the most used space on campus. The Cross Cultural Center has recently moved to a new 8,000 square foot space central to campus and is considered one of the model cross cultural centers in the country. UCSD also has a Women's Center and a Gay Lesbian Bisexual Center.
The Math Department recently created a new student chapter of the Association for Women in Mathematics. There are weekly meetings of AWM in the Women's Center. There are several organizations on campus that address the needs of underrepresented graduate students and graduate women. There is the Graduate Women in Science and Engineering, the Graduate Students of Color Forum, and the Graduate Women in Science Forum. There is the Raza Graduate Student Association for students of Hispanic descent. There is Ujima, the African American Faculty, Student and Staff Association and there is the American Indian Faculty and Student Association, and the Pan Asian American Faculty, Student and Staff Association. Most of these organizations meet in the Cross Cultural Center or the Women's Center.