As a young student in Newark, N.J., José Lopez was so good at science that his classmates sometimes came to him with their questions. A teacher suggested he become a teacher. Lopez listened.
Now, at 32, Lopez teaches science at an even higher level. He is an assistant professor of physics at Saint Peter’s College, a Catholic school in Jersey City, N.J., where he has been on the tenure track since receiving his Ph.D. from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 2005.
Essential to the completion of his doctoral work was a fellowship from the state designed to increase faculty diversity at public and private colleges and universities in New Jersey. Fellowships are one component of the Minority Academic Careers (MAC) program.
“The MAC program has had a big impact on my career choice—no doubt about it,” says Lopez, who is of Uruguayan and Spanish descent. MAC covered his living expenses, allowing him to concentrate on his studies.
In the future, the challenge of financing doctoral study will be harder for minority students aspiring to follow Lopez and the other MAC fellows into academia: The state Legislature defunded the program in the 2011 budget. No new fellows were named for this academic year, although the last ones can complete their Ph.D.s.
“The defunding was the result of the continuing state fiscal situation,” says Dr. Glenn Lang, acting executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education. “The program was not singled out but was part of larger statewide budget cuts. The current budget only supports the seven remaining doctoral fellows.”
Lopez and other former fellows say they were surprised and dismayed at the cutback, which was announced in September. The chairman of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, state Sen. Ronald Rice of Newark, says he too was unaware that the Legislature has only provided appropriations to wind down the program. “I was surprised,” says Lopez. “It’s just a shame that the MAC fellowship is being eliminated from the budget.”
