Passaic Today

Montclair State University, alongside NJIT and Saint Peter’s University, has secured a $75,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This funding aims to enhance pathways to graduate education for all students, with a particular focus on minority males.

The initiative involves three Hispanic-Serving Institutions leveraging their geographical proximity and unique strengths to better understand the barriers and facilitators affecting student success. The project seeks to improve support structures and boost retention and completion rates among minority male students.

The 12-month project, named “Empowering Minority Men in STEM: A Tri-Campus Hispanic-Serving Initiative,” is spearheaded by Junius Gonzales, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Montclair State University. Co-principal investigators include Daniel Jean from Montclair State University, John A. Pelesko and Sotirios Ziavras from NJIT, as well as Weidong Zhu and Christina Mortellaro from Saint Peter’s University.

This collaboration addresses a significant challenge in higher education concerning the decline in men pursuing post-secondary education and graduate programs, particularly among Latino, Black, and Native American populations. While overall enrollments and degrees completed by women are increasing, those awarded to minority men remain flat or are declining.

To tackle these issues, the project will implement several key goals designed to help students succeed in STEM graduate education. These include creating an organizational structure with interdisciplinary teams from the three institutions, gathering data on Black and Latino males’ experiences in STEM fields, identifying institutional barriers and facilitators at various academic levels, understanding contextual influences such as family and community organizations on student success, and recommending changes in practices to create equitable pathways for graduate programs.

“The challenges that minority males face in higher education has been an area of focus for the University,” stated Junius Gonzales. “Collaborating with our partners at NJIT and Saint Peter’s University, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will give us a unique advantage to help create equitable pathways for our future leaders in STEM.”

The partnership also aims to share resources among participating institutions to provide life-changing opportunities for students.