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GE fund supports 'faculty for the future'

MIT's School of Engineering has received a $330,000 grant from the GE Fund's "Faculty For the Future" program to encourage minority and women students to become college professors.

The funds will be applied over a three-year period with the broad objective of increasing the proportion of women and underrepresented minorities appointed to the faculties of institutions of higher learning in the United States.

"Approximately half the funds are targeted for support of Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) projects involving women and underrepresented minority students," explained Professor John Vander Sande, associate dean of the School of Engineering and the person responsible for the program at MIT. "Another third is reserved for graduate fellowships."

He noted that the balance will be reserved for loans to students-which may be forgiven if they take a faculty position-and junior faculty "coupons," funds which graduating women and minority PhD candidates can redeem when they take a faculty position in engineering at any US institution and use for laboratory or research equipment.

The GE Fund-known as the General Electric Foundation until GE combined its charitable organizations into one fund on August 1-has supported a similar program at MIT over the three years ending last June.

"We are delighted at the renewal of the GE foundation support," said Joel Moses, dean of the School of Engineering, "because it supports and complements Institute-wide efforts to encourage women and underrepresented minorities to undertake and complete undergraduate and graduate education at MIT, and also to increase their numbers on the MIT faculty."

Over the past 10 years, the General Electric Foundation supplied more than $3 million to MIT in the form of scholarship and fellowship support, matching gifts, and gifts in support of various labs and projects including $1 million for Project Athena.

A version of this article appeared in the August 31, 1994 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 39, Number 3).

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