Why is it so important to bring more minority students into science and engineering fields?
The National Science Foundation has said that all segments of our population need to be enrolled in math-based degrees at accredited universities in our country. That means white male, white female, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and all the rest. There’s only one segment of our population that’s over parity right now, and that’s the Asian male. All other segments are below parity, and in fact our universities have had to go overseas to bring students in to fulfill our undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. programs. We’re not going to remain number one in technology unless we get our students enrolled in these programs. Talking about the Hispanic community specifically, we know that the 1990 census shows that Hispanics were 11.2% of the population. We expect the 2000 census will probably show Hispanics at 15-17% of the population. Yet 1997 statistics show that Hispanics received only 6.1% of the science, math and technology degrees from accredited universities. By 2050, one out of every four A
