The funding is earmarked for several goals and objectives, including increasing the number of underrepresented students at Caltech; supporting minority students in the sciences, math, and engineering; enhancing precollege and college-level science initiatives; and increasing the awareness of diversity issues within the Caltech community.
Caltech president David Baltimore said the funding would allow the Institute to make more rapid progress in the important areas of campus diversity and minority access.
"This generous grant will help us do much more to assure that Caltech attracts and retains underrepresented minority students," Baltimore said. "With the longtime support of the James Irvine Foundation, we have launched and maintained an array of initiatives for broadening our diversity, and this new award will allow us to continue. Caltech is committed to providing its unique brand of education to an increasing number of underrepresented minority students."
The $2.2-million award will be apportioned to 11 budgeted areas. These are $725,000 for nine graduate fellowships, $235,000 for the Irvine Postdoctoral Fellows Program; $45,000 for outreach; $305,000 for the High Achievement for Undergraduates Program; $190,000 for the Minority Undergraduate Research Fellows Program; $180,000 for the Minority Pipeline programs; $210,000 for the Precollege Science, Math, and Engineering programs; $75,000 for multicultural activities on campus, including lectures and community outreach; $50,000 for curriculum development; $120,000 for the President's Initiative Fund; and $60,000 for assessment and evaluation of existing programs.
The James Irvine Foundation is a private grant-making foundation dedicated to enhancing the social, economic, and physical quality of life throughout California, and to enriching the state's intellectual and cultural environment. The foundation was established in 1937 by James Irvine, the California pioneer whose 110,000-acre ranch in Southern California was among the largest privately owned land holdings in the state.
With assets of $1.6 billion, the foundation makes grants of approximately $75 million annually for the people of California. The foundation's higher-education program seeks to encourage the full participation of California's ethnic minority and low-income populations in all levels of higher education.
Founded in 1891, Caltech has an enrollment of some 2,000 students, and an academic staff of about 275 professorial faculty and 130 research faculty. The Institute has more than 19,000 alumni. Caltech employs a staff of more than 2,100 on campus and 4,800 at JPL.
Over the years, 28 Nobel Prizes and four Crafoord Prizes have been awarded to faculty members and alumni. Forty-five Caltech faculty members and alumni have received the National Medal of Science; and eight alumni (two of whom are also trustees), two additional trustees, and one faculty member have won the National Medal of Technology.
Contact: Robert Tindol (626) 395-3631