Higher ed is pushing STEM diversity, but is change happening fast enough?

For more than a decade, Keith Harmon has helped oversee a rare success story in higher education. Harmon is the director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, an initiative started 30 years ago at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County that has helped the college make serious inroads bridging equity gaps in STEM education.The idea behind the program is simple. With the right supports — namely, a sense of a community and regular advising — underrepresented students in STEM can go further in their education and careers. "We expect them to expect a lot of themselves," Harmon said. "There are high expectations, but they're also highly resourced." So far it's working, with the program boasting more than 1,300 alumni, Harmon said, and studies showing participants are 5.3 times more likely to pursue and complete master's or Ph.D.s in STEM fields. (The program, which is open to applicants from all backgrounds, enrolls a majority of underrepresented students.)The Meyerhoff program is just one of many aimed to increase diversity in STEM. Efforts like it have been critical to getting more Hispanic and black students in those fields, but more progress is needed. According to a new report by the American Council on Education (ACE), black and Hispanic students still significantly lag some of their peers in completing STEM programs.