UMass Boston Breaking Through in Bid to Bring Diversity to STEM - Higher Education: Under a new, Harvard-trained dean of science and mathematics, the University of Massachusetts Boston set out to increase the number and diversity of students enrolled in STEM.
Seven years later, Boston’s only public university has achieved both goals, despite competition from MIT, Harvard and other private universities that fuel the growing technology sector of the area’s economy. Enrollment in the College of Mathematics and Science at UMass Boston has nearly doubled and, at the same time, become majority-minority. About 56 percent of the students are of color, with 35 percent enrollment from minorities who are underrepresented in STEM.