Cell Biology Education
Vol. 2, 117–121, Summer 2003
Articles
Evaluating a Science Diversity Program at UC Berkeley:
More Questions Than Answers
John Matsui,* Roger Liu, and Caroline M. Kane
Biology Scholars Program, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, 2075 Valley Life Sciences
Building, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-3200
Submitted October 8, 2002; Revised December 10, 2002; Accepted January 8, 2003
Monitoring Editor: Anton Lawson
For the past three decades, much attention has been focused on developing diversity programs
designed to improve the academic success of underrepresented minorities, primarily in mathe-
matics, science, and engineering. However, ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in science
majors and careers. Over the last 10 years, the Biology Scholars Program (BSP), a diversity pro-
gram at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, has worked to increase the participation and
success of students majoring in the biological sciences. A quantitative comparison of students in
and out of the program indicates that students in BSP graduate with a degree in biology at signif-
icantly higher rates than students not in BSP regardless of race/ethnicity. Furthermore, students
who are in BSP have statistically lower high school grade point averages (GPAs) and Scholastic
Achievement Test (SAT) scores than students not in BSP. African-American and Hispanic stu-
dents who join BSP graduate with significantly higher UC Berkeley biology GPAs than non-BSP
African-American and Hispanic students, respectively. Majority (Asian and White) students in
BSP graduate with statistically similar UC GPAs despite having lower SAT scores than non-BSP
majority students. Although BSP students are more successful in completing a biology degree
than non-program members, the results raise a series of questions about why the program works
and for whom.
Keywords: science diversity program, University of California, Berkeley, Biology Scholars Program, minority
students, grade point average, Scholastic Achievement Test.
INTRODUCTION degrees awarded in the fields of math, science, and engineer-
ing. For example, of the 65,000 bachelors degrees awarded na-
The population of the United States is undergoing dramatic
tionally in the biological sciences in 1999, underrepresented
demographical changes. In 2000, the U.S. population num-
minorities received less than 13%. Although the numbers
bered over 280 million people, increasing 38% from 1990,
of academically successful underrepresented minorities have
with dramatic increases in the numbers of racial/ethnic mi-
grown over the past four decades, there still exists a signifi-
norities. In 1999, the U.S. Department of Education reported
cant graduation gap between majority and minority students,
that approximately 44% of the population between 18 and
especially in the sciences.
24 years of age was enrolled in a 4-year degree-granting in-
For more than 30 years, much attention has been focused on
stitution. Although underrepresented minorities, including
developing programs designed to improve academic success
African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans, con-
for underrepresented minorities. A large percentage of these
stitute 25% of the U.S. population, they received a dispro-
programs has been designed for college students entering the
portionately low percentage (16%) of all bachelors degrees
fields of math, science, and engineering. In 1999, a report com-
awarded. The percentage decreases further when examining
missioned by the College Board, a not-for-profit educational
association, described and assessed 24 college and univer-
DOI: 10.1187/cbe.02-10-0050 sity programs involved in promoting the high achievement of
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: matsui@uclink4.berkeley. underrepresented minority students (Gandara and Maxwell-
edu. Jolly, 1999). Although the study describes “what works,” few
C 2003 by The American Society for Cell Biology 117
, J. Matsui et al.
quantitative data are provided as to the effectiveness of the The specific aims of this article are (1) to present the results
programs in increasing graduates. In addition, a separate of a quantitative evaluation of the success of BSP students,
study commissioned by the College Board in the same year (2) to discuss programmatic research questions raised by
reported that only a few promising programs were found to these results, and (3) to develop an outline for future studies.
have undergone extensive external evaluation (Cota-Robles
and Gordan, 1999). METHODS
The University of California (UC), Berkeley, is well known
for both its academic programs and its diverse student pop- To assess the impact of BSP on its members to date, we compared
program and nonprogram members in terms of the following.
ulation. However, between 1992 and 1999, of the students
majoring in the biological sciences, only 4% were African I. Academic preparation—as measured by their uncapped high-school
American and 9% were Hispanic. In 1992, The Biology Schol- GPA and their combined score for the math and verbal SAT tests.
ars Program (BSP) was established in the Department of II. Success—as measured by
Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. Funded by the (a) The percentage of intended biology majors who graduated
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, BSP is a program de- with a biology degree.
signed to promote the success of undergraduates from eco- (b) Comparisons of final UC GPA.
nomic, gender, ethnic, and cultural groups historically under- Data on biology graduates were taken from the Central Campus Stu-
represented in the biological sciences. BSP is an academically dent Database.
centered program administratively housed in UC Berkeley’s
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. It is a continuum Research Participants
of resources available to help its members address critical
The data used for this analysis span the academic years 1992 through
transitions (e.g., making the high school-to-university aca- 1999, and using these data, we compare BSP and non-BSP students
demic and social adjustment, declaring a major, applying to graduating with a degree in the biological sciences between 1994 and
graduate or professional school) throughout their undergrad- 1999. Spring of 1994 saw the first BSP graduates. Our comparison
uate years. Program components include academic support data sets include all 1994–1999 BSP (n = 143) and non-BSP (n = 1904)
for lower-division courses in the biology major, an academic biology graduates (Table 1). In our study, “intended biology majors”
and career seminar series, social events, access to on- and off- include those students who state on their admissions application that
campus paid research opportunities, academic and personal they intend to major in 1 of 11 majors: bioengineering, conservation
and resource studies, environmental science, forestry, genetics and
advising, and mentoring. By design, BSP also addresses issues
plant biology, integrative biology, microbial biology, molecular and
that encompass students’ lives “beyond academics,” such as cell biology, molecular environmental biology, nutritional sciences,
the impact of family, financial, personal, etc., issues on their and resource management. It should be noted that intended majors
performance at Berkeley. Overall, the goal of BSP is to create in biology who do not graduate with a biology degree have not nec-
a community of scholars with both high academic expecta- essarily left the university but may have switched to an alternative
tions and high academic support, which allows its members major.
to network with culturally sensitive faculty, staff, more se- In addition to Intended Major, the data sets of 1994–1999 BSP and
non-BSP graduates also include Ethnicity, Math–Verbal–Total SAT
nior undergraduates, and graduate students in an academic
Scores, Uncapped High School GPA (i.e., GPAs that exceed a max-
context. imum of 4.0 if a student takes honors and/or advanced placement
Any student admitted to the UC Berkeley undergrad- courses), and Final UC GPA at graduation.
uate program expressing an interest in the biological sci- All students in the study are “intended biology majors,” “All
ences is qualified to join BSP. Underrepresented high school Groups” includes “Majority” + “Minority” students, “Majority” in-
students applying to UC Berkeley with an interest in the cludes Asian and White students, and “Minority” includes African-
biological sciences, as indicated on their application, are American and Hispanic (Chicano/Latino) students. Native American
mailed information including an invitation to apply to the and Pacific Island students were not included in this analysis because
of their small numbers.
program. UC Berkeley students from low-income and/or Regarding graduates who were once transfer students, because
first-generation college backgrounds are identified through most of them completed their lower-division science and math-
various on-campus programs, provided an informational ematics courses at their community colleges before their admis-
meeting, and encouraged to apply. Current students having sion to the university, we cannot assume that their academic
difficulties adjusting to the university are referred to BSP by experiences (e.g., lower-division class size, testing, workload) were
professors and college/major advisors. Finally, current BSP similar to those of students who entered Berkeley as freshmen.
members can recommend students for acceptance into the Therefore, in this study students who transferred to the university
in advanced standing were omitted from the analyses. In a future
program. Selection into the program is based on an infor-
mational one-on-one meeting with either the Director or the
Assistant Director of BSP that includes a written application
and a final interview. Table 1. Race/ethnicity of BSP and non-BSP students graduating
Between 1992 and 1999, African American and Hispanic with a biology degree at UC Berkeley between 1994 and 1999
students made up 28 and 31% of the program participants, re-
spectively. The goal of BSP is to diversify those participating Race/ethnic category BSP Non-BSP
in science by targeting Berkeley undergraduates from these
underrepresented groups. Through collaborative academic African American 31 (22%) 31 (2%)
workshops, research opportunities, career/course advising, Asian 61 (43%) 1283 (67%)
and a student center located in the heart of the main science Hispanic 39 (27%) 111 (6%)
Caucasian 12 (8%) 479 (25%)
building on the UC Berkeley campus, students develop a com- Total 143 (100%) 1904 (100%)
munity through academic as well as social activities.
118 Cell Biology Education
