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President's Initiative on Race Background: The President issued a report on One America In The 21st Century: The President's Initiative on Race in which he:
A series of discussions were held around the country called One America: Conversations
That Bring Us Together. They were hosted by members of the President's
Cabinet and the President's Advisory Board to the Race Initiative, senior members
of the White House staff and other Administration officials. Status of OSTP Activities: In its efforts to support the President's Initiative on Race, OSTP was involved in the following activities:
150th AAAS Meeting. Together with the AAAS Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs, then-Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Dr. John H. Gibbons hosted a roundtable dialogue on race and the scientific and technological challenges of the 21st century as part of the 150th Annual AAAS Meeting in Philadelphia.The panel, co-chaired by Dr. Gibbons and Dr. David Hamburg, President Emeritus of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Member of the President's Committee of Advisors for Science and Technology, consisted of twenty prominent scientists and technological leaders of academia, industry, and government. The conversation focused on the need for greater racial diversity in the science and technology community, ways to improve minority recruitment programs in science and engineering, and how to deal with the challenges to recruitment programs in science and engineering that target minorities. The following points emerged from the panel discussion:
Regarding targeted minority recruitment in science and engineering, the following two pressing issues emerged during the conversations that require research:
A final report entitled, Meeting America's Needs for the Scientific and Technological Challenges of the Twenty-First Century, summarizing the roundtable dialogue has entered the clearance process for publication. NSTC Committee on Science IWG. On September10, 1998, the President directed the NSTC to develop recommendations within 180 days on how to achieve greater diversity throughout our scientific and technical work force. The NSTC recommendations will detail ways for the Federal Government to bolster mentoring in science and technology fields and to work with the private sector and academia to strengthen mentoring in higher education. Therefore, OSTP, along with the NSTC Committee on Science, established a new IWG that will provide recommendations on how to increase the participation of minorities, women, and persons with disabilities in the S&T workforce. Specifically, this IWG is concerned with defining and recommending the Federal role in developing the U.S. S&T workforce of the future. The S&T workforce is assumed to extend from the technician (typically less than 4-year college preparation) to the Ph.D. level. While the IWG is focusing on programs and policies affecting persons above high school to keep the scope of the study within bounds, it is recognized that relevant educational pipeline issues are also critical to developing the S&T workforce of the future. The U.S. S, E &T Workforce of the Future: National Strategy, National Portfolio, National Resource Base. On July29-30, 1998, under the auspices of the NSTC Committee on Science, numerous Federal agencies sponsored a workshop to explore the status of and options for diversifying our future S, E & T workforce. Over one hundred participants and speakers attended the workshop. The workshop was designed to provide input into the work of the IWG on the Future of the S&T workforce. HBCUs. Federal investments in minority institutions are not easy to extract from agency budgets because most are not line items. Few programs are aimed at building institutional capability in research. Instead, most provide support of minority students or faculty.OSTP has assembled a broad-brush inventory of agency dollars awarded to institutions of higher education and to HBCUs as a catagory. We have also tried to identify programs within agencies that seek to build institutional capability. Race Research. OSTP initiated contact with ASA to develop an assessment of research associated with race. The Race Initiative Office followed up on this and has provided financial support for this activity directly to ASA. Office of Science and Technology Policy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W Washington, DC20502 202.395.7347 Information@ostp.eop.gov
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