The University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is a multi-institutional center dedicated to training graduate students how to teach more effectively. Launched in 2003 as a collaborative effort between four universities, CIRTL has grown rapidly, now including 22 universities that will collectively graduate some 2,200 future faculty that will have participated in at least one CIRTL offering or training session. Funds from this grant support the construction of a new IT communications infrastructure, the CIRTL Network Commons (CNC), to replace the one that was developed when CIRLT membership was small and when capabilities for online information exchange and collaboration were much less well developed. Products to be supported by the CNC include university dashboards for access to information and tools, social tools to promote community among participants at the member 22 institutions, online community forums and learning community spaces, resource sharing tools, course management tools, cognitive tutors to help students learn complex thinking and problem solving skills, and CIRTL event management and registration tools. The CNC will also enable the collection and analysis of usage data to facilitate informed assessment of the impact and effectiveness of CIRTL’s programs.

The rate of underrepresented minority (URM) doctoral production in economics is dismal: an average of only 12 doctorates per year were awarded to blacks between 2001 and 2011, down from an average of 18 per year in the preceding five years. This grant supports a pilot initiative by New York University economist Peter Henry, Dean of the Stern School of Business, to increase the number of economics doctorates awarded to underrepresented minority students though providing intensive, high-quality mentorship to promising URM students in economics.Over three years, Henry will recruit six high-achieving, high-potential students of color as they graduate from college and offer them an intensive, full-time post-baccalaureate research apprenticeship where they will take selected NYU courses and develop one or more projects chosen specifically to result in co-authoring articles with Henry. Supported students will also receive peer support and mentoring from former mentees in Henry’s program. Henry will also assess student progress and compile program documentation to share with others in the economics profession in the hopes that his program, if successful, can be replicated in other settings.