College Surveys Summer Experience

As part of its ongoing efforts to develop resources for students in science, the College began surveying undergraduates last Wednesday about their summer experiences.

Associate Dean of the College Georgene B. Herschbach said she believed that the survey, part of an initiative of the Task Force of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), was the first science survey administered to all College undergraduates.

The page-long online questionnaire will compile responses from all students about their summer science activities as a source of background information for the further development of the Harvard Undergraduate Summer Science Research Program.

The College is using an iPod nano giveaway to encourage students to participate before the survey ends Oct. 19.

The survey asks students who took part in scientific activities over the summer about the sources and amount of their funding, and whether they were provided with room and board.

It also asks about the duration of the activity and whether they expect to receive credit.

The University assembled the WISE Task Force, chaired by Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences of the Barbara J. Grosz, in early February to examine the underrepresentation of women in the sciences and charged it with drafting recommendations to address this issue at Harvard.

Grosz was appointed along with Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Drew G. Faust and Professor of the History of Science and of African and African-American Studies Evelynn Hammonds to head the committee’s three-month review.

The recommendation for the expansion of the summer scientific research program is the second of 17 detailed proposals spelled out in the WISE final report, submitted in May. Other recommendations included designing study centers for specific concentration courses, improving freshman science advising, and further developing search and hiring processes to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities holding faculty positions.

According to the report, the recommendation stems from the rationale that “a positive research experience in a supportive, collegial environment can make a significant difference in a female student’s decision to continue in one of the fields of basic science.”

More specifically, the recommendation proposes that the Harvard Undergraduate Summer Scientific Research Program, which already exists, be expanded to provide safe and affordable on-campus housing, coordinate evening workshops and seminars, and facilitate transportation to and from the labs for resident summer researchers.

The report states that the Task Force aims to fully implement these initiatives by the summer of 2006.

“We’re just beginning the implementation of the recommendations of WISE, including the development of database containing information about research and funding opportunities available to undergraduates,” Herschbach said in an email.

Until the data is assembled, she added, it is still unclear what the next step will be.

No similar surveys are planned as of yet.

The University will devote $50 million over the next decade to implement the recommendations, including the development of the summer research program, according to a report filed by University President Lawrence H. Summers and University Provost Steven E. Hyman.

“We believe that these [recommendations] will help all science students at Harvard but that they will be particularly helpful for women science students,” Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics Howard Georgi wrote in an e-mail. Georgi co-chaired the undergraduate working group for WISE, which met with students last spring to discuss ideas for the proposals.

“I hope that the surveys will help in the implementation of these recommendations,” he said.

—Staff writer Ying Wang can be reached at yingwang@fas.harvard.edu.