In a state where lawmakers currently are debating a bill that would scale back state-sanctioned affirmative action policies, a University of South Carolina (USC) faculty member is trying to lure under-represented minorities into the collegiate teaching ranks.
Dr. Aretha Pigford, a professor of education, says she believes she can raise $150,000 over the next few months to pay stipends for ten Ph.D. candidates who could begin their final push toward a terminal degree at the University's flagship campus in Columbia this fall. Pigford's three-year goal is to have thirty students at USC, thus adding to a pipeline that produces just 1,400 Black Ph.D.s annually, according to the National Library of Education.
The centerpiece of Pigford's vision is a pledge that students will be paired with enthusiastic mentors willing to share teaching secrets and nurture teaching skills.
"Mentoring is important in education, period," says Dr. Michael Nettles, executive director of the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute, which studies ways to improve educational opportunities for minorities. And, he says, "The mentor doesn't have to be the same race as the student."
According to Nettles, it is more important that a student have someone to depend upon for advice and guidance, and that the relationship function as a partnership.
With the help of a planning grant from the Kellogg Foundation, Pigford has spent the past year trying to drum up support for her idea. If she ran raise the necessary matching funds, she stands to receive nearly $1 million in Kellogg grants over five years.
Betty Overton, Kellogg's higher education program director, says the foundation is "very excited about...this project. It integrates into higher education our theme of capitalizing on diversity."
The past year hasn't been easy for Pigford, but she's not discouraged. Although USC's administration is now supportive, school President John Palms expressed reservations last fall about the incentive strategy of tying enrollment at the university to job guarantees.
