PhD Project: The People, The Program, The Power, The Results, The

Black Collegian, Oct 2003 by King, Lisa

Higher education is rife with change this year. The Supreme Court's decision to leave intact the admissions process at the University of Michigan Law School is just the tip of the iceberg. There continue to be discussion and transformation among academics as well as politicians on what is best for higher education. Many programs have been developed as a result of the lack of diversity in our nation's colleges and universities. One of these programs, The PhD Project, was created in 1994 to address the underrepresentation of minority faculty at business schools. The results to date are outstanding. This program is making a difference.

The People

As a young man, Jeff Brice found the rough side of life all-too-familiar territory. After a difficult childhood, he enrolled as an undergraduate at Tuskegee University. What his classmates and professors did not know was that he was homeless. For three years, he lived in a graveyard. Then he landed a job in a campus dormitory-it provided room and board. Following an entrepreneurial route upon graduating, Brice became a music video producer "without even knowing what a producer was. I had no experience in films, but I found out that you could put a crew together for $25,000, make a video in two weeks, and get $100,000 for it. I saw an opportunity and I took it."

Once tired of the video production business, Brice saw another opportunity and took it - the opportunity to become a business school professor. With the help of The PhD Project, Dr. Jeffrey Brice now leaches entrepreneurship at Hofstra University, where he brings his real-world experiences to the classroom. Because of this, his students are better prepared to tackle a more realistic and practical view of how to build a business.

Dr. Brice is one of hundreds of minorities who have discovered the benefits of becoming a professor, thanks to The PhD Project. In an effort to combat the lack of diversity in the front of the classroom, The PhD Project, a multi-million dollar corporate and academic-led effort to increase minority representation (African-American, Hispanic-American and Native American) among business professors, was developed. Since The PhD Project was founded in 1994, the number of minority professors at U.S. business schools has more than doubled, from 294 to 645.

"When students of color see a professor of color teaching, they lend to want to attend that person's classes," said Mel Stith, dean at Florida State University's (FSU) College of Business. "Students of color see a greater opportunity to develop mentor relationships when they attend classes taught by professors of color," Stith added.

"I'm a role model as soon as I walk into the classroom," says Laquita Blockson, a professor at Florida International University. "When I enter the room and say Tm Professor Blockson,' I can hear them say, 'Whoa!'" Dr. Blockson first began contemplating a career as an educator as an undergraduate at Florida A&M University when she realized that academics come in all colors: "I had never seen so many Black faculty before." But a corporate career beckoned, and she became a real estate executive for Taco Bell. The dream of teaching simmered on a back burner, and eventually, she attended a PhD Project conference. There, her life changed in an instant: "It all hit home." I realized, "I was chosen. This is my profession."

The Program

Dr. Blockson's story is a familiar one to many of those attending The PhD Project conference, held every November in Chicago. The PhD Project conducts a nationwide marketing campaign-identifying minorities willing to leave their corporate jobs, return to academia to earn a Ph.D., and become business professors. Top candidates are invited to a three-day conference, where they meet with current minority business professors and representatives from Ph.D. programs across the country. They get all the information they need to make the transition from business to academia. Furthermore, The PhD Project pays airfare and lodging for the conference.

Once enrolled in a doctoral program, students become members of one of the five Minority Doctoral Students Associations (one for each discipline-Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Management and Marketing). They meet once a year (again, all expenses paid by The PhD Project) for peer and mentoring support, which is extremely important for people who might be the only minorities in their doctoral program. The dropout rate for PhD Project participants is only eight percent-much smaller than the over thirty-three percent rate for all doctoral students. And, 99% of PhD Project graduates are in academic careers as compared to the national average of 67% for new Ph.D. graduates, as reported by AACSB.

The Power

Recently, The PhD Project surveyed undergraduate and graduate students at U.S. colleges taking classes from minority professors. The survey disclosed that minority professors are having an astonishing impact on the education of both minority and non-minority students. When asked, 96% of minority respondents said minority professors are positively impacting their education. Furthermore, 83% of non-minority respondents believe that minority professors are having a positive impact on their education.