Texas A&M University
Department of Sociology
College Station, TX 77843-4351
(409) 845-4944
Contact: Harland Prechel
Partner Institutions:
Blinn College, Our Lake of the Lake University, Prairie View A & M University, Sam Houston University, Texas A & M International University, Texas Southern University, University of Texas at Pan American
This broad range of partner institutions brings within the broad geographic dispersion, which is part of the Texas mystique. PFF graduate students visit the partner schools and those faculty come to A & M for collaborative workshops on teaching. A & M builds on its work as an ASA MOST school and its training grants from NSF, all of which has resulted in an entering cohort of graduate students about half majority and half underrepresented minority students. “Many of the minority students have come from the undergraduate institutions in the PFF cluster,” says Harland Prechel, project director. “Extending our collaboration from the recruitment of graduate students through their placement as new faculty seems like a useful service for our students and for the profession.”
Objectives:
1. Provide teaching proseminars for graduate students
2. NSF supported programs designed to provide undergraduate students from disadvantaged backgrounds instruction in research methods, research training, GRE instruction, and presenting research at professional meetings.
3. Set up activities that provide grad students with an understanding of the professional expectations in order to prepare them for teaching, research, and service expectations.
a. expansion of the departmental teaching proseminar
b. collaborative workshops involving members of partner institutions
c. visits by grad students to partner institutions, where students have the opportunity to teach a module
d. a mentoring program
e. panel of former graduate students to give advice to current graduate students and suggest improvements for the graduate department
f. a Cluster Steering Committee to give feedback and advise the department regarding the graduate program
g. faculty and graduate students make presentations on the PFF program outcomes at professional meetings, for the benefit of other ASA members
4. A method of evaluation is planned so that the department can amend and improve the PFF program. 
