Challenges to Implementing Integrated Programs: Lessons From California State University STEM Collaboratives

• In Event: Organizational Perspectives on Diversity and Student Success

Abstract

College campuses have experimented with numerous ways to improve success for underrepresented students in STEM, yet graduation rates have remained stagnant. Emerging evidence has shown the promise of integrated programs that combine several interventions to support students both inside and outside the classroom. Despite evidence of these programs’ success, few such programs exist because of structures and cultures within higher education that discourage collaborative work. This paper examines the work of eight campuses within the California State University (CSU) system as they implemented integrated programs. We identify and describe the challenges these campuses faced, including several that were linked to collaboration and several that have not been previously identified in existing literature.

Authors

• Adrianna Kezar, University of Southern California

• Elizabeth Marshall Holcombe, University of Southern California