Press Release

CONTACT: Joann Stevens
(202) 387-3760
E-mail:stevens@aacu.org

Preparing Future Faculty Enters New Project Phase in Collaboration with NSF-Sponsored Campus Programs

Washington DC—September 29, 1999—This fall the "Preparing Future Faculty" program of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) initiates 19 new programs via the National Science Foundation sponsored program Shaping the Preparation of Future Science and Mathematics Faculty. These doctoral departments have formed a cluster of partner departments in neighboring colleges and universities and established a PFF steering committee composed of faculty from the partner departments and graduate students in the program. Additionally, the clusters have created a mentoring program for aspiring faculty, and are offering workshops, seminars, and classes to introduce their doctoral students to the full range of faculty roles and responsibilities in several different institutional settings.

Collaborating disciplinary societies are also actively engaged in promoting their PFF work. Participants from the University of Massachusetts and the University of Michigan, for example, recently gathered at an American Chemical Society national meeting in New Orleans to plan a series of PFF presentations at national and regional meetings. They even leveraged their way onto the agenda of a sponsored forum, "Chemistry Education in the 21st Century: Perspectives & Innovations in the Graduate Education Paradigm."

Campus and department participants in the "Shaping the Preparation of Future Science and Mathematics Faculty" program are:

Mathematics (sponsored by the American Mathematical Society & Mathematical Association of America)

• Binghamton University (SUNY) - Department of Mathematical Sciences,
• Arizona State University - Department of Mathematics,
• Virginia Tech - Department of Mathematics,
• University of Washington - Department of Mathematics.

Computer Science (sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education)

• University of Iowa - Department of Computer Science
• University of Cincinnati - Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science

Physics (sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers)

• University of California at San Diego - Department of Physics & Center for Teaching Development
• University of Arkansas, Department of Physics
• University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Physics
• Howard University - Department of Physics and Astronomy

Chemistry (sponsored by the American Chemical Society)

• Duquesne University - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Queens College (CUNY) - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• University of California at Los Angeles - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• University of Massachusetts at Amherst- Department of Chemistry
• University of Maryland at College Park - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• University of Michigan - Department of Chemistry

Biological and Life Sciences (sponsored by the PFF national office)

• Duke University - Departments of Botany and Zoology
• University of Cincinnati - Department of Biological Sciences
• University of Nebraska - School of Biological Sciences, Departments of Animal Sciences, Biochemistry, Entomology, Office of Graduate Studies
• University of South Carolina - College of Science and Mathematics

For more information see the PFF web site (www.preparing-faculty.org).