The Multicultural Program, originated as the Minority/Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) in 1989. The Minority Engineering Program was created under Dr. William Wells, dean of the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering to address the underrepresentation of Native Americans, Black Americans, Latino and Hispanic Americans in the engineering, computer science, informatics, and construction management professions. An initiative to recruit, retain, and graduate these students began and has increased to include even more students and disciplines.
Initially, the program was funded through support from Southwest Gas and the U.S. Department of Energy and hired its first director, Dr. Eugene McGaugh. McGaugh created and supervised many outreach opportunities including the Cooperative Developmental Energy Program that brought highly qualified underrepresented math majors from Fort Valley University near Atlanta to 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ to study engineering. Successful graduates of this program now give back to the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Multicultural Program through donations and are members of the advisory board.
Although the Multicultural Program is open to all students enrolled in these five disciplines, our primary mission remains to improve the recruitment, retention and graduation rates of underrepresented and minority students in 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ’s STEM and Health Science colleges.