photo by: Courtesy: University of Kansas

Joseph Brewer II assists students from the Haskell Environmental Research Studies program with fieldwork.

The University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University have received $500,000 to start a new program to increase the number of Indigenous students receiving degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.

The $500,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Indigenous Graduate Partnership is designed to be seed money for a project that will work to remove barriers and create new pathways for Haskell students to pursue graduate degrees at KU. The program also is expected to have funding for seven scholarships for graduate students.

The grant aims to address a 20-year trend of a rapidly declining number of doctoral degrees in STEM fields that are awarded to American Indian and Alaska Native students, KU said in a release.

The program will include a coordinator dedicated to helping Haskell students make a transition to KU, and also will include workshops, conference and special events, in addition to providing training to strengthen faculty mentoring of Indigenous students.

Joseph Brewer II, KU’s director of indigenous studies, will lead a team of KU faculty members, while Francis Arpan, vice president of academics at Haskell, will lead the Haskell team.