Thomas Landefeld: Fixing the Leaky Pipeline of Minority Student Support

Thomas Landefeld, professor of biology, presented “Leaks in the Pipeline: Do Faculty Mend or Create Them?” at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, Miss., in late September. The presentation was part of a career development series sponsored by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Minority Access to Research Careers (FASEB MARC) Program.

The former director of the Cal State Dominguez Hills Bridges to the Baccalaureate Degree program and the Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (U*STAR) program, Landefeld says that there needs to be accountability among faculty in demonstrating an understanding of students whose academic experience differs greatly from theirs.

“One institution actually included efforts expended towards diversity in annual evaluations of the faculty,” he says. “Faculty must be willing to make the kind of effort that it takes to truly mentor with the support of the administration, because mentoring does take considerable time and energy. There must also be a commitment from the top that is associated with a true accountability.”

Landefeld maintains that budgetary constraints can be overcome, especially if faculty is willing to step up to the plate to show support for aspiring minority scientists.

“This is a very difficult task considering the current status of funding for education not only in California but nationwide,” he notes. “Since dollars often come from federal funds, legislative representatives at both the state and national levels need to be strongly lobbied to allocate more funding for these areas. Private foundations and companies are feeling the crunch, due to the decrease in federal dollars so they are not as rich of a source as they once were. Thus, faculty need to use their networks as much as possible and become fundraisers.”

- Joanie Harmon