SEISMIC, a coalition of American research institutions striving to create a more accessible STEM curriculum to underrepresented minorities, held its first annual summer meeting in June on the U-M campus. Over four days, nearly 40 representatives from the 10 participating universities, which collectively enroll about 350,000 students, gathered to discuss how to foster a mindset in which STEM is a viable course of study for anyone who wishes to pursue it.
SEISMIC has funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to continue for at least three more years. Tim McKay, U-M professor of physics and SEISMIC director, said he hopes to accomplish a lot in that time, but acknowledges that SEISMIC is only the beginning of a transition STEM fields have to make in the interest of diversity. “The struggle for equity, for inclusion, it continues,” McKay said. “In fact, I don’t think it ever ends. There will always be people who are not here and who we have to find ways to bring here, to serve.”
